A Sunday afternoon research-driven session at the Retirement & Longevity Summit at the Hotel Del Coronado in San Diego titled “The Correlation of Health and Wealth in Aging” gave advisor attendees information on how to prepare for declining health, including resources and strategies for their clients.
Presented by Molly Prues, CEO and Gerontologist with training provider VistaLynk in conjunction with financial services powerhouse Raymond James, it covered four important, interconnected and interrelated areas:
- The factors that impact health later in life
- Ways to help clients plan for a better experience of later life
- How the demands of caregiving can impact financial wellbeing, and
- Strategies to support caregiving clients that lesson the impact on financial wellbeing.
Frequently referencing the Summit’s opening keynote session with author and caregiving advocate Liz O’Donnell when describing the health/wealth paradigm, she noted that “healthy” years mean working to accumulate wealth, while later life is about protecting wealth from the effects of poor health.
Overwhelmingly, personal circumstances, behaviors, and environment have the greatest influence on health, with health care and genetics far less.
Prues added there are both social and personal determinants of health later in life that include:
Social determinants of health (money)
- Housing
- Transportation
- Food
- Access to health care
- Education
- Employment
Personal determinants of health
- Having purpose
- Social networks
- Optimism
- Social/emotional support
- Locus of control
- Self-perceptions of aging
- Self-efficacy (the ability to advocate for ourselves)
It’s that list of personal determinants of health that feed the key driver of retirement health and wellness, which is resilience.
“Why is resilience so important?” Prues rhetorically asked. “It’s linked to optimal personal outcomes, including a higher quality of life, greater happiness, better mental health and wellbeing, lower depression, longevity and reduced mortality risk.”
And, she concluded, those who are less resilient tend to have 24% higher annual health care costs.
With more than 20 years serving financial markets, John Sullivan is the former editor-in-chief of Investment Advisor magazine and retirement editor of ThinkAdvisor.com. Sullivan is also the former editor of Boomer Market Advisor and Bank Advisor magazines, and has a background in the insurance and investment industries in addition to his journalism roots.
