Financial Healthfor Seniors

A CSI Initiative:Supporting Advisors

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 2

Financial acumen can be a source of empowerment,

enabling people to achieve their ambitions and

retirement goals. But its absence can have the

opposite effect — at times with devastating

implications. This is too often the case for seniors

who experience diminished capacity and find

themselves vulnerable to financial mismanagement

or exploitation.

The past few years have seen increased industry

and regulatory scrutiny over the financial welfare

of older investors, which has also caught the

media’s attention. We recognized that the Canadian

Securities Institute (CSI) could help play a role in

alleviating the challenges facing seniors by providing

free educational services to financial advisors and,

through the advisors, to their clients.

In a constantly changing financial and technological

landscape, senior citizens are often left behind

and are ill informed. They heavily rely on close

family and professional advisors on many matters,

especially managing their finances. Thousands of

CSI credentialed financial advisors across Canada

provide consultation to seniors from all walks of life.

In November 2018, the Canadian Securities Institute

(CSI) conducted a survey of our designation holders.

The purpose of the survey was to gauge the issues

related to seniors that designation holders were most

concerned with and to determine how CSI could

best assist them if at all, in dealing with the issues

identified.

We received survey input from more than 500

designation holders, most of whom are actively

serving and engaging with senior clients in their daily

professional life. Responses were collected from both

English and French designation holders who also

provided significant additional written comments. We

will leverage this feedback to drive our initiative.

FINANCIAL HEALTHFOR SENIORS

A CSI Initiative:Supporting Advisors

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 3

More than 75%

51% to 75%

25% to 50%

Less than 25%25-50%

51-75%

75-100%

0-25%

Do you currently advise clients directly and who among them are seniors?

What percent of your senior clients would you estimate are women (single, widowed)?

More than 70% of our responding

advisors have more than 50% of their

client base as seniors. This could be

on account of the growing aging

population in Canada. However,

it is also a known trend in advisory

services that general population

tend to get more serious about and

receptive to professional financial

advisory services as they age.

Addressing financial challenges

faced by senior women clients can

be overwhelming due to income

disparity, fewer years of earned

income and other life circumstances.

Therefore, it is important to identify

what percentage of senior clients are

women.

I do not advise clients directly

I advise clients directly; 75% or more are of senior age

I advise clients directly; 51% to 75% are of senior age

I advise clients directly; 25% to 50% are of senior age

I advise clients directly; less than 25% are of senior age

0-25%N.A.

75-100%

25-50%51-75%

Q

Q

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 4

From your experience, which of the following issues, are of particular concern to seniors?

We found that most of the issues

we asked about received very high

ratings. The highest rated issues

concerning seniors identified were:

• Declining cognitive ability;• Potential abuse;• Risk of outliving wealth; and • Inadequate readiness (wills, power of

attorney)

OTHER ISSUES

To ensure we covered all issues, we

asked respondents to include other

issues they found relevant but not

mentioned in the survey; for which we

received over 100 responses.

POTENTIALABUSE(COERCION, FRAUD)

8%

38%

54%

OUTLIVINGTHEIR

WEALTH

5%

32%

63%

NO WILLOR ESTATE

PLAN

10%

40%50%

INADEQUATE PLANNING FOR

DECLINING HEALTH

8%

38%54%

NOPOWER OF ATTORNEY

12%

40%

48%

DECLINING COGNITIVE

ABILITY

3%

32%

65%

NotConcerning

SomewhatConcerning

VeryConcerning

Don’tKnow

QTop 6 Answers

POTENTIALABUSE(COERCION, FRAUD)

8%

38%

54%

OUTLIVINGTHEIR

WEALTH

5%

32%

63%

NO WILLOR ESTATE

PLAN

10%

40%50%

INADEQUATE PLANNING FOR

DECLINING HEALTH

8%

38%54%

NOPOWER OF ATTORNEY

12%

40%

48%

DECLINING COGNITIVE

ABILITY

3%

32%

65%

NotConcerning

SomewhatConcerning

VeryConcerning

Don’tKnow

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 5

With the aim of better serving your aging clients, what issues are cited as most important?

RECOGNIZINGSIGNS OF COGNITIVE DECLINE AND OTHER

AGE- RELATED PSYCHOLOGICAL

CHANGES

ESCALATIONPOLICES FOLLOWING

RECOGNITION OFELDER ABUSE AND/ORCLIENT BEHAVIORAL

CHANGES

4%

23%

73%

5%

26%

69%

ASSISTINGCLIENTS WITH ESTATE

PLANNING ADVICEPARTICULARLY ON ISSUES LIKE

BUSINESS AND PERSONALPROPERTY (I.E. COTTAGE ETC.)

SUCCESSION

5%

19%

76%

INFORMATION ON HOUSING OPTIONS FOR

CLIENT AND FAMILY

22%

46%

32%

COMMONEMOTIONAL ISSUES

(I.E. LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE, LOSS OF LIFESTYLE, DEATH OF SPOUSE

ETC.) AND HOW TO TALK WITH AGING CLIENTS ABOUT THEM

8%

43%49%

RECOGNIZINGSIGNS OF

ELDER ABUSE(COERCION, FRAUD)

7%

31%

62%NotImportant

SomewhatImportant

VeryImportant

Don’tKnow

RECOGNIZINGSIGNS OF COGNITIVE DECLINE AND OTHER

AGE- RELATED PSYCHOLOGICAL

CHANGES

ESCALATIONPOLICES FOLLOWING

RECOGNITION OFELDER ABUSE AND/ORCLIENT BEHAVIORAL

CHANGES

4%

23%

73%

5%

26%

69%

ASSISTINGCLIENTS WITH ESTATE

PLANNING ADVICEPARTICULARLY ON ISSUES LIKE

BUSINESS AND PERSONALPROPERTY (I.E. COTTAGE ETC.)

SUCCESSION

5%

19%

76%

INFORMATION ON HOUSING OPTIONS FOR

CLIENT AND FAMILY

22%

46%

32%

COMMONEMOTIONAL ISSUES

(I.E. LOSS OF INDEPENDENCE, LOSS OF LIFESTYLE, DEATH OF SPOUSE

ETC.) AND HOW TO TALK WITH AGING CLIENTS ABOUT THEM

8%

43%49%

RECOGNIZINGSIGNS OF

ELDER ABUSE(COERCION, FRAUD)

7%

31%

62%NotImportant

SomewhatImportant

VeryImportant

Don’tKnow

QTop 6 Answers

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 6

Q

Q

Where do you go now for support tools that you can use with your senior clients?

What type of tools you would find most helpful to share with your senior clients and their families?

Resources on my companyintranet

Tools that were developed or purchased privately and are not

appropriate for sharing

Other

71%

22%

16%

Information from Seniors resource

sites such as CARP, Senior Living, AARP

55%

RE

SP

ON

SE

PE

RC

EN

T

0

20

40

60

80

100

In-personseminar material

(Power Point)

OnlineWebinars

ConferenceCalls

OtherPrintedMaterial

OnlineVideos

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 7

Q

Q

If CSI were to provide free presentation templates and seminar promotion support, would you be interested in hosting a seminar in your community aimed at reaching seniors and their family members and providing guidance on how to deal with financial issues?

Please select from the following activities that you would like to participate in for this initiative?

A large number of respondents

were interested in participating

and learning more about how

they can contribute to helping

senior clients.

Not Intereste

d

Employer Complic

ation

Want to Know M

ore

Very Intereste

d

I am very interestedin participating

I want to know more

I am not at all interested

I am not sure if my employer would sanction

my participation

I would like to host a webinar in my community for seniors in collaboration with CSI

I would like to attend a free CSI webinar on the results of this survey

RE

SP

ON

SE

PE

RC

EN

T

80%

I would like to be one of the presenters of CSI webinar publicizing the results of this survey

14%26%

I would like to collaborate with CSI and act as a volunteer for different activities relating to this initiative

35%

46%

23%11%

40%

F I N A N C I A L H E A LT H F O R S E N I O R S | 8

SummaryMost respondents clearly believe that issues related to seniors represent

a key concern that they must deal with. They believe that they do not

have the soft skills to detect cognitive decline and lack the hard skills to

address wills, power of attorney and estate planning. They do not want

to become social workers either but are rather seeking platform/tools to

help them serve their senior clients better.

Next StepsThe survey responses indicate that although resources are available,

they are very fragmented. Our designation holders see that CSI can play

a useful role providing third-party resources for clients and material for

advisors through a unified platform. They also recommended working

with advisors to pool resources.

Based on the results of the survey, CSI is planning to launch the

Financial Health for Seniors microsite to provide resources and

presentation material to designation holders to bridge the ‘availability

gap’. The material (presentation decks, hand-outs, reference material)

will facilitate simpler access to information for seniors and their

families. As such, CSI, in partnership with its designation holders, is

able to mobilize advisors who can provide precious insight and advice

to seniors and their families. All the material will be offered free of

charge. In addition, CSI will be setting up a series of free webinars as

of September 2019 on various topics related to how to think about

retirement and how to advise on retirement.

Financial Health forSeniors – AdvisoryCommitteeIn order to create the best and most useful resources, CSI is forming

an advisory committee made up of designation holders and experts

from associations to guide us in our work. We are looking to identify

designation holders, having considerable experience with seniors, to

provide guidance and advice throughout the process. The advisory

committee would be invited to review the material we produce and

provide guidance on launching this initiative. The commitment would

involve attending two or three meetings beginning in June 2019.

If you are interested in joining the advisory committee, please email

the information below and your CV to designations@csi.ca by April

25th, 2019:

Name

Address

Phone No.

Email ID

Job Title and Employer

Short paragraph explaining your interest and qualifications

Many of the designation holders who responded to our survey expressed

an interest in participating in our initiative to organize sessions for

seniors and their families in their communities. CSI is also looking to

identify designation holders who are willing to join our fall campaign

to organize sessions for seniors and their families. Stay tuned for more

information as we develop our site and launch Financial Health

for Seniors.

Canadian Securities Institute would like to

thank all who took the time to participate in our

survey. Your contribution and the feedback

you have provided will be instrumental in

helping us shape our Financial Health for

Seniors initiative.

- Canadian Securities Institute

Thank You