Advisors Quell Client Health-Care Fears

(Dow Jones) Financial advisors are fielding calls from clients worried about the new health-care bill and what it will cost them.

Carl Friedrich, a certified financial planner in Syosset, N.Y., says some of his clients, who include teachers, are asking about the so-called Cadillac tax on high-cost health-care benefits they receive through employers.

His first words are of reassurance: No taxes are likely to be imposed until later this decade. "That's the first sigh of relief," he says.

Next, Friedrich tries to quantify the value of the health benefits they receive through their employers, which involves phoning the employers and determining if it crosses the $27,500 threshold for families outlined in the legislation the House of Representatives approved this weekend. In those cases, an excise tax would apply in 2018.

"A lot can change before then," he says.

Friedrich and his colleagues didn't wait until President Barack Obama signed the massive overhaul into law Tuesday to start informing clients. Well before then, they were posting news stories about the reform's expected impact on the firm's Facebook page. Proactively educating clients, boiling down complex concepts and placing them in context are among advisors' responsibilities to their clients, he says.

"I ask clients to look at us as their liaison to all things financial in their lives," he says. "We want them to come to us if they're buying a new car or see financial news that scares them."

Many of David O'Brien's small-business clients have voiced concern in recent months about paying more for what they describe as government-controlled socialized medicine.

O'Brien, a CFP in Richmond, Va., is reluctant to engage in political or religious discussions with clients. So he directs the conversation by asking: "Who do you like more, your doctor or your insurance company?" Then he explains that the legislation aims to protect consumers' access to their doctors from insurance companies focused on profits, and to ensure individuals, including those with health problems, have access to care.

Framing the issue this way calms investors and focuses them on what O'Brien says are the important questions, including: "How does this impact me?"

Carl Macko, a CFP in Smyrna, Ga., has been getting that question, too. He told one high earner in his mid-60s that he faces higher Medicare payroll taxes beginning in 2013, which will require additional tax planning in the future.

But a middle-income couple was pleased to learn that their son, who's living at home and having a hard time finding a job following his graduation from a state university, could remain on their health insurance.

Macko plans to email clients highlights of the final bill by early next week, assuming the Senate quickly approves some final adjustments to the legislation.

Consumers need help digesting this giant law and separating fact from partisan characterizations, he says.

"It's so big and so complex," Macko says. "It affects everyone across the country."