McClanahan believes it’s important to perform a cognitive assessment on every client, not just the ones an advisor is worried about. “Advisors need to make this a part of their practice as soon as people become clients,” she says. Once clients hit age 50, she recommends testing them every couple of years. Clients who become familiar with the test are less likely to refuse to take it when they are older, she says.
It’s also important to teach people more about their finances, because those who are more financially literate are often able to retain control of their finances longer, she says. This could also help them avoid making poor financial decisions and falling prey to scams.
It’s not just dementia that people need to worry about, says McClanahan. Everyone suffers problems to some degree when they age, she says, such as having greater difficulty solving more complex problems. “You don’t know if it’s going to be you.”