A little-known hearing loss epidemic from teens to centenarians is sweeping the country.
Advisors who let this warning go in one ear and out the other do so at their own risk.
An unheard or misheard “yes,” “no,” deadline or number by either party in a conversation between an advisor and a client can cause trouble with a capital “T.”
The number of Americans with hearing maladies has doubled since the 1980s. It is a problem that is expected to get worse as the share of all adults afflicted is projected to soar from 15 to 23 percent in the next 40 years.
Two-thirds of adults over 70 are hearing-impaired.
The need for advisors to be cognizant of the issue is stressed in AARP’s “A Financial Professional’s Guide To Working With Older Clients.”
However, advisors should be attuned to possible hearing loss in everyone, not just older people.
Forty million people from the ages of 20 to 69 have the difficulty, too, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Roughly one out of every 10 teenagers has the onset of hearing loss.
Notoriously Hidden Problem
Hearing loss is a notoriously hidden health problem. It often creeps up gradually and many of the afflicted view hearing impairment as a sheepish embarrassment, so they simply elect not to have it diagnosed and treated.
What has caused the overall surge in recent years is the advent of earbuds which can assault an ear as directly as a knife to a limb.
No matter how conscientious an advisor is who has worked with hearing-impaired clients for years, things can and do fall through the cracks.
J.J. Burns, owner of a nine-person advisory shop in Melville, N.Y., recalled once a hearing-impaired client told his office he needed $150,000 for a vacation home.
“We said verbally fine, just give us seven days’ notice. The client didn’t hear the seven days’ notice,” said Burns.
The lapse didn’t cost the client the home because of a rush of last-minute transfer of funds and paperwork.
“It could have gone smoother,” said the advisor.
He noted a frequent problem with hearing-impaired people is they might not hear their obligations of getting something done by a certain date.
Lessons For Advisors
The lesson, said the advisor, is to put everything in writing and if at all possible, in writing when the hearing-impaired client is present.
“Seventy percent of communication is nonverbal. This shows the clarity of the communication. That it is well thought out,” said Burns.
He said added the put-it-in-writing rule is especially important in scheduling.
“We might tell a hearing-impaired client to meet Wednesday. But she might miss out on the hour,” warned Burns.
Ask Ian Windmill, president of the American Academy of Audiology, about problems advisors face with hearing-impaired clients and he can give you an earful.
Because he hears it from his own financial advisor who knows what he does.
Windmill said the advisor tells him he regularly sees hearing-impaired clients bring in their spouses for appointments so they are clear about what was said and agreed to.
To add certainty, that advisor makes sure they leave with written notes.
The Audiology Association President said there are three signs of possible hearing impairment to watch out for in phone and face-to-face conversations with clients.
• Mixing up words. When a client hears “to come” when you have said “income.”
• When a client asks you to repeat constantly.
• And, as his advisor noted, when a client brings an intermediary into the conversation in-person or on the phone.
It’s not just in conversations with advisors that the hearing impaired can encounter significant financial issues.
Avoiding loud noises is the chief way Windmill said he and his members advise to protect yourself from hearing loss.
Another caveat is to abstain from using handfuls of aspirin to kill pain.
“You can start getting hearing problems if you take 10 or more aspirin daily for three or four weeks. You really need to be careful,” said Windmill, the audiology clinical director at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
Financial issues can be more acute for the hearing impaired beyond their dealings with advisors.
With hearing aids averaging $2,400 (and often the need is two), a hearing aid or two can be the most expensive purchase after a home and a car.
Add to that the cost of a Federal Food and Drug Administration-mandated medical evaluation to get a hearing aid.
In addition, Medicare and most private insurance plans don’t pay for them.
More affordable hearing aids could become a reality soon because of bipartisan legislation appearing to make its way through Congress that would let some types be sold over the counter.
An affordable alternative to a hearing aid (caveat: when it does the job), is a personal sound amplification product. PSAPs can run as low as $20 to about $500.
There is also savings because a PSAP can be obtained without going to a doctor, unlike a hearing aid.
But a hearing expert employed by Consumer’s Reports said the cheap ones can make hearing disorders worse by heightening fire engine and other loud, sharp noises.
On the positive side, a review in the March issue of the magazine found the $350 SoundWorld Solutions C550+ could be helpful for someone with early or mild or moderate hearing loss.
Another iffy cost saver is a used hearing aid. Hundreds are available on eBay, but a buyer may not be able to find a professional willing or able to adjust it.
A risk of PSAPs and hearing aids is that users can find them so uncomfortable they put them away and never use them, as is frequently the case with other health wearables such as glasses and dentures.
One turnoff is itching because the ear canal is covered by extremely delicate skin.
Summer can be a double whammy because the heat and humidity can increase sweating and distort and weaken the sound quality of the devices.
How To Help
Here are recommendations from a variety of experts on how you can help hearing-impaired clients and yourself, if you suffer from the condition:
• Repeat or paraphrase important points as you make them.
• Provide a written summary or follow-up information to your discussion.
• Speak louder and clearer than normal.
• Talk face-to-face so the hearing-impaired advisor or client can understand better by watching the speaker’s face move and see the expressions.
• Have conversations a quiet place. In a restaurant, obtain a table away from the height of the noise.
• The best distance for communication is three to six feet.
• Use visual clues to emphasize a message such as touching the arm of a hearing-impaired client, knocking on the table, flashing the lights or waving your hand; then wait for a response.
• Be sure a hearing-impaired client is looking at you before you begin to speak.
• If you wear a mustache, consider trimming it so your lips can be seen easily.
• Speak and enunciate clearly.
• Make eye contact and only talk when facing the client.
• Keep pencils, hands or other items away from your face so your lips can be seen.
• Speak in a low pitch.
• Point, touch or use other non-spoken ways of communicating.
Think you may have a hearing impairment?
The possibility is strong enough that you should get a definitive opinion from a primary care physician, an otolaryngologist, an audiologist or a hearing aid specialist if you can answer yes to three or more of these questions, advises the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communications Disorders (NIDCD) :
• Do you sometimes feel embarrassed when you meet new people because you struggle to hear?
• Do you feel frustrated when talking to members of your family because you have difficulty hearing them?
• Do you have difficulty hearing when someone speaks in a whisper?
• Do you feel restricted or limited by a hearing problem?
• Do you have difficulty hearing when visiting friends, relatives, or neighbors?
• Does a hearing problem cause you to attend religious services less often than you would like?
• Does a hearing problem cause you to argue with family members?
• Do you have trouble hearing the TV or radio at levels that are loud enough for others?
• Do you feel that any difficulty with your hearing limits your personal or social life?
• Do you have trouble hearing family or friends when you are together in a restaurant?
Hearing loss, in and of itself, isn’t a high-volume issue for regulators beating the drum about elder financial abuse.
However, hearing impairment is a risk factor for dementia that regularly sets the stage for exploitation.
Typical hearing doubles the risk while a severe case increases the chances of getting dementia are fivefold, according to Alzheimer’s Association Director of Scientific Programs and Outreach Keith Fargo.
Part of the connection, said Fargo, is the embarrassment over poor hearing can lead seniors to become isolated, to avoid contact.
He noted animal studies have shown hearing loss shrinks the brain.
“Something similar may be happening to humans,” said Fargo.