How Old is Your Retirement Financial Advisor?

If I were a financial advisor I would really want to be near the age of the person I was advising or have dealt personally with the problems of a family member or friend that was retired!  The internet is filled with ads for people that want to tell others who are retiring how to invest their money and how much retirement income they will need.  But, unless they have been personally and emotionally involved in the finances of a senior, they probably know zip!

I was reading an article put out by a leading financial group the other day saying the same thing.  According to the person writing this article, the thing most advisors are forgetting is the emotional and financial cost of maintaining our bodies (health care).  The money figures they quoted were staggering.

• According to the estimates in Figure 2, a man age 55 in 2009 would need between $144,000 and $290,000 by the time he reached age 65 in 2019 (depending upon his use of prescription drugs in retirement) to have a 50 percent chance of having enough money to cover premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for Medigap and Medicare Part D
• Women age 55 would be able to save the same $46,200 as 55-year-old men if interest rates were 1 percent, but would need between $210,000–$406,000 by the time they reach age 65 in 2019 to have a 50 percent chance of having enough savings to cover premiums and out-of-pocket expenses in retirement.

These figure released in 2010 by the Employee Benefits Research Institute are the latest I can find and probably don't take into account new benefits or loss of benefits that have been instituted over the last 2 years.

Living for six month of the year in a 55+ community has giving we some insight to the good and bad of health care choices.   For example, we see people that do not have the benefit of physical therapy after surgery.  Recovery takes so much longer and is not complete.  In other cases we witness the effects of poor dental care and all the problems it brings.  Many people are dependent on the Veteran's Administrations for care and it has been a disaster.  In some cases all of these come together to create the perfect storm.  On the other hand, those with good health care benefits can live a very long and healthy life.

Living by the seat of our pants is not a good thing. Find a good retirement advisor be sure he/she is good because they truly understand the emotional side of living with the spektor of poor health care for the rest of your life.

Just a thought.

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Technorati Tags: Financial Advisors, Retirement, HealthCare

Note:  Be sure of the cost before you enter into an agreement. In 2006 Kiplinger said:

A commission only advisor can offer you the advice you need and the cost will be amazingly low. this is because they are still early on in the "learning process". Dont let that scare you - if you go with a big firm, they will likely have a strict review process to ensure you are getting excellent advice (and doing nothing stupid).

Read more: http://forums.kiplinger.com/showthread.php?6561-Financial-advisor-costs&s=4f5052f5c810348950a19683e2c0c1db#ixzz1k28Ib3B5
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