National Health Care Decisions Day is April 16 (Tuesday), a day that draws attention to the incredibly important but often overlooked issue of advance care planning. This becomes critical with age, but accidents and serious illnesses can occur at any age. In fact, young people are involved in serious accidents more often than their elders. Therefore, everyone should have advance care planning. By opening this conversation with your customers, you provide exceptional, holistic guidance that sets you apart, and you also reach the next generation.
Start with one of the most important documents to make sure every customer fills out before they have a problem: the Health Care Authorization. This is a legal document that names a health care representative (also known as a proxy, surrogate, or agent). This person is authorized to make health care decisions on behalf of the client if the client becomes unable to do so themselves.
It's normal for clients to have some resistance to talking about this. To counter this, I recommend you present the document this way: “If you were in a car accident and passed out in the ER, someone will make your medical decisions for you. Do you want him to be the overworked ER doctor who has never met you? Or the ethics board at the hospital? Do you want your family to argue, with the final decisions made by your most vocal and stubborn family member? Or do you want to maintain as much control as possible, even when you're unconscious? Let's make it happen for you. Then, let's also see if we can get the document in place for parents, siblings and adult children. Remember, young people are often involved in accidents and anyone can be in the recovery room after surgery or for any number of reasons be unable to speak for themselves. I would like to make sure that you and your family are all protected. Can we start with that?”
Continue with basic education. For example, “Many people have heard of a health care power of attorney, or even have one. But they don't fully understand what it is or that simply naming someone isn't enough to maintain maximum control over medical treatment. It is important to know that if you are conscious and able to make decisions, the POA does not come into effect. It is only triggered if you are unable to make your decisions for any reason. If this happens to you at any time, even if is only temporary, my goal is to help you be among those with the greatest chance that this document and your discussions with your chosen people will fulfill your goals and help ensure that you get the treatment you want .”
Instruct clients to carefully select a primary person and 1-2 alternates they trust to fulfill their wishes. (Many couples will name each other, but if they are in an accident together, then who has the authority? Alternates are important.) Next, point out that in addition to assuming authority, those people must fully understand what what your customer wants and why they want it, so any situation can be interpreted with the customer's ultimate goals in mind.
The operative question is: “What must you be able to do, feel, participate in, or understand in order to make it worthwhile to artificially intervene to prolong the life of the body? And at what point, if any, do you no longer want that?” Example: A woman in early stage dementia stated that when she does not recognize her children 50% of the time, she no longer wants any artificial intervention – no feeding tube, ventilator, CPR or even antibiotics. Just keep her comfortable and if she dies of an illness or condition, so be it. If she recovers, so be it. Just let it happen naturally without interfering with artificial means.
What does your client want, physically and cognitively, that is worth having an intervention? How high should the chances be that the intervention will return them to “normal” active life? At what point, if any, would they want to let nature take its course?
You might even consider facilitating this discussion. Volunteer to host a 20-minute online meeting for your client and their designated representatives. Encourage them to openly discuss your customer's wishes and let them ask questions. This not only informs decision makers, but also gives your client evidence of whether those people would feel comfortable making the desired decisions.
On the call, you can also encourage primaries and alternates to fill out their POA paperwork and have these conversations, as you'd like to see them all have as much control over their lives and health as possible. .
When you do these things, you do the right thing for your customer. At the same time, you meet people who are central to your client's life and position yourself as a financial professional who cares about more than just finances. This is better than any marketing you can do. As always, when you do the right thing for your customer, it ends up being very good for your business.
Amy Florian is the CEO of Corgenius, combining neuroscience and psychology to train financial professionals how to build strong relationships with clients through all of life's losses and transitions.