Business Innovators Radio - Interview with Kerry Morris, CFP® Founder of HonorShield Discussing the National Aging Crisis

Episode Date: July 13, 2023

Kerry Morris, Author of When Retirement Goes Bad, Life Sucks, Certified Financial Educator, and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional.Kerry Morris has been serving families for the past twenty-five years as a financial planner and advisor. He has recently launched HonorShield, LLC., as a way to challenge the current thinking and behavior of consumers and financial advisors preparing for the potential high cost of aging.He has spent several of his twenty-five-year career advising hundreds of families experiencing the nightmare of paying for care. The question, always, was “how to make the money last”?Morris has watched too many families, too many men and women not be fully prepared for retirement. The financial industry has put this cost-of-care issue on total “ignore” mode, often shoving it onto a small-but valiant band of “insurance specialist” around the country. Only about 1 in 100 Americans embrace this model. That is a problem for American families and our country.Morris found a better way, a win-win solution that more American’s could feel good about embracing. It’s a whole new way to approach and solve this problem: the LCAP—the Longevity Care Allocation Plan. Every person, every family deserves to know how an LCAP works. Kerry Morris has made it his life’s goal to ensure that those he helps can hold their head high and know that no matter what curve balls retirement throws at them, they will be prepared.“One of the most important things I’ve learned in my 25 years in the business is that a great life is supported by three areas, Health, Relationships, and Money. My job is to make sure that a family’s money is working effectively to accomplish that job.”Learn More: http://www.honorshield.com/Influential Entrepreneurs with Mike Saundershttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/influential-entrepreneurs-with-mike-saunders/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/interview-with-kerry-morris-cfp-founder-of-honorshield-discussing-the-national-aging-crisis

Hello and welcome to this episode of influential entrepreneurs. This is Mike Saunders, the authority positioning coach. Today we have back with us, Carrie Morris, who's the founder of Honor Shield, and we'll be talking about the national aging crisis. Carrie, welcome back to the program. Thank you, Mike. Good to be back. Yep, I'm excited to talk with you because I know that every time we turn on the news

or get on social media here about some celebrity getting diagnosed with some long-term illness. And I just wanted to get your thoughts on that. I know that ties into this national aging crisis. So what is the national aging crisis and who's qualified to kind of address that and help combat it? Yeah, it's a great question. And, you know, I hate to do this, but I got to do this. I got to take just a minute and give you the reality of some statistics right now that

everyone kind of needs to absorb, okay? So these are, let's just kind of get that out of the way because it's important to just kind of where we are. Let's geolocate us on the map and why we've been. might call it an aging crisis. So from the 2023 Alzheimer's Association, and so this is, these stats are very Alzheimer's heavy. Just know that there's over 70 kinds of dementia, there's loss of mobility issues, all that plays in. But this is just a snapshot into one section of it. So here's a few stats for us. An estimated 6.7 million Americans over age 65 are living

with Alzheimer's dementia in 2023, 6.7 million. Two-thirds of Americans, two-thirds of Americans. Americans over age 65 with Alzheimer's dementia or women. So two thirds. That's huge. Deaths due to Alzheimer's disease between 2000 and 2019 have more than doubled, increasing to 145 percent. Now, what I see in that is a rate of growth. You know, it's more than doubled in that time. What's it going to do in the next 10 years? And then one in three seniors die with Alzheimer's disease or another dementia. So that broadened it to other dementia. is that's 33% man. Wow.

That's huge. A few more here on to the caregiving. Nearly half of all caregivers who provide help to an older adult do so for someone with all summers or another dementia. Now, there's about 53 million family caregivers in the country. If you take out the special needs children, that still is in the 40s. So that's over, it's 48% of those caregivers are caring for. for someone with Alzheimer's or another dementia.

So there's a reason why we're kind of overweighting our message a little bit, that direction, trying to get folks' attention. What about cost of care? In 2023, total payments for all individuals with Alzheimer's disease or other dementias are estimated at $345 billion, not including unpaid caregiving. Wow. So I see a lot of... That's a number of the B at billion.

That's a lot of money, and that's not even the full. amount because like you said, not including caregiving. Yeah, we see an estimate quite often of unpaid caregiving, but this is one of the first times I've seen it actually for the paid. A couple more here. So this is dementia care workforce. 20 U.S. states have been termed dementia neurology deserts.

So I'm switching over to the medical community for a second. Dementia neurology deserts, meaning they are projected to have fewer than 10 neurologists per 10,000 people with dementia in 2025. So it's not just in the financial industry that we're going to talk about today. It's the medical industry is behind as well. And then one more about the actual workforce. Some of you may have heard this. An estimated 1.2 million additional direct care workers will be needed between 2020 and 2030.

More new workers than any other single occupation in the United States. So what does that mean? see that, Mike? What I think of is wages and what are we going to have to do to get those workers? Well, we're going to have to pay more, right? I mean, generally supply and demand, right? And so that kind of speaks to this whole issue. So you can hear these stats. You obviously see that a national aging crisis is happening before us. You know, this is given rise to the need for a whole new type of financial expertise because that's what I want to talk about today because, quite frankly, basically about 99 and a half percent of all those folks that call themselves

a financial advisor or just not qualified. But let me give you an example of why most advisors really don't know. First of all, what Medicare covers and what Medicare doesn't. They don't know what Medicaid rules and regulations are, what it covers and what it does it. They don't know what the partnership program is, which most states have embraced. That's just a tiny bit. They don't understand the use of reverse mortgages, elder law attorney planning, special legal documents that are necessary. They don't understand the government programs such as non-service-connected pension with aid and attendance for wartime veterans. They're not aware of the entire care community, you know, the spectrum of care and what everybody really does from non-medical home care all the way up to nursing home. So when you say they're not qualified, air quotes, you don't mean, and I'm clarifying this because I'm confident that you do not mean they're not qualified as a financial professional.

They just aren't qualified to know all of these nuances and all of these extra things that play into what a pre-retiree or retiree must be facing. These financial planners know stocks, bonds, mutual funds, insurance, but they're kind of myopic in how that, impacts the client's financial portfolio. Exactly. Yeah, I mean, it's kind of like if a general practitioner tried to do heart surgery on somebody because it's really, really specialized, you know. Yeah, they're still a doctor. They just don't know that specific area of medicine.

Yeah, so there's no shame in it. It's understandable. What's different about our industry, though, Mike, is it's not like the medical industry where people refer at the drop of a hat to a specialty that somebody needs. So they're just getting by in trying to, excuse me, trying to just use the toolbox that they have to try to solve all the problems. They'll kind of fake it until they make it, so to speak, and they try to be all things to all people,

even though it's not really their wheelhouse. So it's almost, it sounds to me like it's kind of given rise to a new type of financial professional. Is that a good assessment? Yeah, I mean, it's, we're talking about the entire cost of what is about a 12 to 20 year journey for aging and decline for families. So that's why we've been very sensitive to this entire spectrum, Mike. And we've, we've become an advocate for the entire financial community to bring forth a special kind of financial professional qualification where you're taught and trained in this area, you know, and we call it longevity care allocation planning. and that's done by a care funding specialist.

So, Kerry, a care funding specialist, I love the sound of that because that is different than what most people are hearing and thinking about a financial professional. Normally you hear the typical acronyms and letters, but this is almost given rise to a new type of financial professional, right? Yeah, Mike. And it's existed really in the United Kingdom for many years. It's a strict licensure over there, actually, because this is. is such a big issue, as we kind of noted so far. And so that's why, you know, become a very

passionate advocate for the financial industry to, frankly, get our act together on this national aging crisis. You know, our hope is that financial advisors will say, hey, you know, I do fall short in this area. I must bring in a qualified person or, you know, either I have to learn it myself, which most don't need to stop and do. I mean, 95% of investment advisors, don't even have a licensure to even use some of the solutions that are out there. Yeah. So they could come alongside one of these specialists and they could work together because probably a care specialist would not have the need to work on the kind of investments that a CFP

would. And a CFP wouldn't have the licensure. So they could be a nice team. Just like the guy who fixes your brain doesn't fix your heart, you know, or your kidneys or whatever. And quite frankly, if they don't do you. that, they're going to probably face litigation from clients or angry family members at the least. So it works out better anyway. And they come together because they're talking about the bodily functions

of the brain versus the heart. And we need to make sure the endocrine system talks to and whatever all of that would be. So in this world, it's like, well, we need to take a look at the retirement portfolio. We need to make sure that insurance is in place. We need to make sure that. And then everybody does their job. And then here's the client sitting back going, wow, this team is coming together and really putting my needs first. So what would a traditional financial advisor have to kind of be on the lookout for and learn? Yeah. So, you know, so the go-to thing over the years was just, hey, let's provide a long-term care insurance policy and or one of these nursing home policies. But as good as that is, they're quite limited, you know, unless they look at

the entire spectrum of everything. So a traditional long-term care insurance policy is a good thing, but we know that not many companies are providing it. And if you don't use it, you lose it. It's wasted money. The cost of premiums are going up. They're not locked in. And so really, an advisor, it's just a huge, huge block of knowledge that an advisor truly has to learn to understand the coordination of the different

solution options that are out there with tax law, Medicaid law, Medicare, care and how it interworks with income planning, the investment planning piece. So that's why we call it longevity care allocation planning. So a care funding specialist understands the pros and cons of using different types of accounts to pay for care and can then isolate which is the best block of money to maybe slice off a piece and allocate it to get some leverage further in the future. Or if somebody's in care right now, what are they? options? Is there a way that they can still have some little known products that are out there

to help them pay for that? You know, that's a good point. And I know you touched on this, and I want to make sure that people realize that when you have some types of these policies, it's a bill. It's a cost. And if you don't use it, then you never got any benefit from it. And what you're talking about is almost like an asset. It's an investment, because if you don't use it, then that's fine, but then the underlying asset is still there. So it's got a dual purpose and sometimes two or three purposes that bring value to the client, right? Yeah, that's, you hit the nail in the head, trying to get that win-win, you know, because we don't want people to feel like they're betting against themselves. And that way, if you're not, if you're not wasting

all of what you, you know, allocated to help do something about this, if you never need it, then you feel good about it. 100%. Well, it just, opens up our eyes here from our conversation that with this national aging crisis, there are statistics that are so prevalent that we know it's going to touch someone that we know or our family. It's not like so remote that, well, that's never going to happen, Carrie. So the statistics are really, really eye-opening. And an advisor needs to realize some of these things to bring some of these options. And I like that word that you use because it brings options and opportunities for a client to consider. No one's going to ever push you into something, but if you understood some of these

things and looked at some of these options, that really then would enhance what's what you're facing with retirement, keeping those holes in the bucket, so to speak, mitigated and plugged up as much as possible. So if someone is listening to this and going, well, I need to find one of these specialists, what do they do? Because this is not something that is an easy Google search. Yeah, exactly. You know, that's why we call it a planning process, because it's like if you're were going to build a house, you start with a piece of ground and you have to go and there's a lot to think about. And so the first step is education. And so always education is a great first step. And, you know, folks are welcome to request my book or books. Hit the website, you know,

HonorShield.com. And, you know, we're in the process of establishing new offices as fast as we can in as many cities as we can across the country. And, of course, we work virtually and excuse me we work virtually as well and and we can help folks everywhere that way and this is not just about us as we've talked about it's about the whole deal but the whole industry but we're quickly trying to make a big difference in this mic you know it the word comes to my mind a crusade you know you've seen the the statistics and you've seen that there's a gap in the market of what clients need and what is being provided to them by a traditional financial professional. And you're kind of rallying the troops and coming alongside these clients that don't

even know what this need is. So once you bring it to their attention, it's like you're championing this crusade. And I love that you're doing this because once people realize the import and they realize some of these easy and tried and true and proven solutions, I think it just really makes them sleep better at night and realize that they are taking care of their family that much better. It's definitely a mission, Mike. I've been in the business 25 years. I'm 57 years old, and this is how I plan to spend the rest of my career and the rest of my life

trying to make a difference in this because I sat with those families dealing with this. I saw what they did, what they went through, you know. And now you've got a solution for them. So I love that, Carrie. And it's been such a great honor talking with you. I love your name of the company, HonorShield, and the website, HonorShield.com. We'll make sure that is in the show notes for anyone to check out. And I really appreciate you coming back on today.

It's been a real pleasure talking with you again. Same here, Mike. Great to see you again.