What can advisors do as almost half of Canadian retirees are at risk of social isolation
Each month at WP we offer a slate of articles and content pieces that go deep on a particular topic. This February, we're focusing on retirement.
Advising Canadians in retirement means managing risk. Traditionally, in this industry, that means managing investment risk, ensuring that their savings can last through their lifespans and hopefully leave something for the next generation. As the recent Ageing in Canada Survey from the National Institute on Ageing (NIA) found, however, one of the greatest risks is not financial, it’s social.
The survey found that 57 per cent of older Canadians experience loneliness while 43 per cent are at risk of social isolation. It also found a decline in social engagement, with only 33 per cent of older adults participating in social, recreational, or group activities weekly – down from 39 per cent the year earlier. The single largest barrier to social engagement cited by respondents was affordability. For Laurel Marie Hickey, ensuring her clients stay social is a responsibility that spans the financial and the interpersonal sides of the business.
Hickey is a Senior Wealth Advisor & Senior Portfolio Manager at Wellington-Altus Private Wealth. In working with clients in and approaching retirement she integrates the financial and personal aspects of social engagement and fulfillment. She works to ensure clients can afford to try new things in retirement, while preventing a situation where new and expensive hobbies leave them overstretched. She also seeks to demonstrate how important social fulfilment can be in retirement, telling stories of successful retirees to clients well before they stop working.
“As advisors, we have to ask who and what are important to you, we have to ask what you want to do, if there is something you want to celebrate? What does celebrating mean to you? Is celebrating just saying I did it, I did it, or is celebrating taking the whole family on a cruise for to the Mediterranean?,” Hickey says. “When we put together a network statement there’s a little hidden gem of a question. We ask clients what their collectible is. And so we've been doing it for years and we really learn a lot about the clients from that.”
The answer to that collectibles question, Hickey says, has run the gamut from swimming trophies, to motorbikes, to vintage books, to Pokémon cards. Often times those collecting interests take clients on trips, either locally or around the world, and drive them to foster deep social connections over their shared interests. The insights that these questions provide can open up discussions of affordability, purpose, and engagement in retirement.
For those who have clear defined interests outside of work, Hickey can talk about how they can ensure they’ll afford them in their retirement years. For those without such a defined set of interests, Hickey can ask how those clients might want to explore the idea of finding new interests. She’ll often tell stories about her clients’ swimming tournaments or Pokémon card exchange trips to spark that exploration.
Sometimes, Hickey notes, clients who have focused so much on their careers and families will struggle with the idea of spending some of their hard-earned retirement savings on things like trips and hobbies. Hickey will often encourage those clients to start spending on, and engaging with, that lifestyle shift before they stop working. That allows them to gain comfort with more fulfilling ways of spending their money as they see what they can afford, all within the secure context of an earned income.
Just as Hickey works to ensure her clients are thinking about their social outlets in retirement, she seeks to serve as something of a social outlet herself. Many of her clients like a chance to go for coffee or dinner with her, and she’ll make the time to meet them in those settings. Others prefer to spend time in downtown Calgary, so Hickey will ensure the meeting takes place in her office. For those clients who prefer to stay home, Hickey will insist that their virtual meetings are camera-on, so she can see how engaged and well her clients are. Hickey notes that she’s had to make wellness checks in the past and feels a sense of personal responsibility for her clients’ level of social engagement.
As advisors increasingly serve clients’ whole lives, rather than just their investments, Hickey believes that there is a need to integrate those questions of social engagement and wellbeing. Clients’ numbers underpin everything, as cash flow and long-term goals will determine what can be done. From an understanding of those numbers, advisors can help their clients reckon fully with what their retirements will look like.
“Retirement is such a vulnerable moment, there’s a huge change,” Hickey says. “So it’s a moment where you as an advisor might put yourself in the client’s shoes and think about what their first day would feel like… I feel that advisors should spend a few minutes before each meeting just thinking about the life that their client has lived since you last connected with them.”
