There’s a particular kind of relationship that really only becomes possible in our later years.
Typically, in our first meetings, there’s lots of questions and clients will bring in folder of statements and a list of questions. Over time, the numbers come into focus and a plan begins to take shape and is executed on. But then, usually years later - often a decade or more in - after you’ve watched someone move through different stages of their life, and they’ve watched you do the same, the relationship evolves again, often when someone reaches their eighties. That’s when the relationship can matter the most.
What Changes at This Stage
The financial planning conversation doesn’t disappear when clients move into their later years. But it changes in character in ways that are worth understanding.
In someone’s sixties and early seventies, the conversation is largely forward-looking. How do we structure income in retirement? How do we manage taxes efficiently? When do we take Social Security? These are planning questions with meaningful degrees of freedom - decisions that can be made intentionally, revised if circumstances change, refined over time.
By the eighties, the conversation becomes more about stewardship than strategy. The big decisions have largely been made. What matters now is making sure everything is in order, that the people who need to be involved are involved, and that nothing falls through the cracks at a moment when the margin for error is smaller.
There’s also something else that shifts. The energy clients bring to financial conversations tends to change as they age - not because they’ve stopped caring, but because their priorities have genuinely moved. The client who used to follow markets closely and arrive at meetings with pointed questions about portfolio performance may now care far more about the grandchildren coming to visit than about quarterly returns. That’s not disengagement. That’s wisdom about what actually matters.
Journeying With People
One of the quiet privileges of this work is watching people over long arcs of time.
There’s a particular kind of encounter that stays with you. Running into someone you knew in their prime - a prominent figure, a person who commanded rooms - and finding them at a different stage entirely. A familiar face, but a different presence. Slower, perhaps. More dependent. And yet, still with a valued perspective and much to share and teach.
These moments are instructive. They’re a reminder that the people sitting across the table in their sixties - sharp, accomplished, full of plans - are on a journey that continues past the point where many financial planning conversations tend to stop. The advisor who has been with them through that journey has a kind of knowledge about them, and a responsibility to them, that no 800 number can replace or replicate.
We’ve been to funerals for clients we genuinely loved. We’ve been thanked at community events by widows who wanted us to know what our work meant to their family. We’ve had clients say things in meetings, in moments of vulnerability, that they haven’t said to their children. That’s not something that happens in a transactional relationship. It’s the product of years and the mutual confidence that is built every day.
Bringing the Family In
One of the key shifts in working with clients at this stage of life is who the conversation includes.
Around the mid-seventies - sometimes earlier, sometimes a bit later, depending on circumstances - it’s worth beginning to bring adult children into the picture. Not to take over, but to give the people who may eventually need to act on a parent’s behalf the context and the relationships to do so thoughtfully.
In many cases, those conversations are welcome and embraced. Children are often relieved to be included. They’ve been wondering. They have questions they didn’t know how to ask. Bringing them in early, while their parent is still fully engaged, allows those questions to get answered in the right environment rather than in the middle of a crisis.
When cognitive or physical decline does arrive - and for many people it eventually does, in one form or another - having those relationships already in place makes an enormous difference. The shift from working primarily with a client to working primarily with their power of attorney is less jarring when everyone already knows each other. The familiarity is already there.
What It Means to Do This Work Well
There are moments in this work that remind you why it matters. A chance encounter at a community event with a longtime client. A phone call from someone whose situation you helped navigate years ago. A kind word from a family at a memorial service. These moments don’t happen in transactional relationships. They’re the product of years, and of genuinely caring about what happens to the people you serve.
That’s what this work looks like when it’s done well. Not just managing money - though that matters - but being present through the stages of a life. Knowing the whole picture. Being the person who gets called when something changes, who knows what questions to ask, who can help a family navigate something complicated at a moment when they have very little capacity to spare.
The financial piece is important. But it’s in service of something larger: the confidence that comes from knowing your financial life is in order, and the ability to direct your attention towards everything else that matters.
Rawe Financial is a family-owned financial services practice in Northern Kentucky, helping individuals and families navigate every stage of life. If you are thinking about what this stage looks like for you or someone you love, we’d welcome a conversation.