“Significant” opportunities exist for financial advisors to better educate consumers about the risk of income loss from illnesses or accidents, and to better prepare them to mitigate loss, a new survey says.
To help consumers financially plan, advisors must repair the disconnect between their assumptions about the consumer mindset and what consumers actually believe about disability risk, according to a survey by the Council for Disability Awareness (CDA).
Exactly 83% of consumers believe “a disability could happen to anyone at any time,” while just 35% of advisors thought consumers would agree with this statement.
About 33% of consumers expect a disability would prevent someone from ever working again, but advisors accurately predict shorter disabilities occur more often due to common causes such as chronic disease, back pain and arthritis.
Nearly two-thirds of consumers said it’s important to start planning financially for a potential loss of income “in their 20s” or “at any age,” yet financial advisors perceive consumers “in their 40s” are most open to discussing income protection.
Even when consumers and advisors are in agreement, their shared beliefs could be inconsistent with the facts, the survey reported. Most consumers and ad
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