Article Why health advice belongs in every adviser’s toolkit

Picture this hypothetical client of yours. She’s exhausted. Her job is intense – the hours are long, and the stress has started to take its toll: migraines, sleepless nights, rising blood pressure.

And despite how hard she works, she doesn’t have enough money yet to retire.

As financial advisers, you’re trained to focus on numbers. But as I discovered though chatting to Dr. Daniel Crosby – psychologist and Chief Behavioural Officer at Orion Advisor Solutions – recently for Money:Mindshift: true wealth isn't just a number.

Being good with money doesn’t just mean being good with the technical side of financial planning. Being good with money also relates to living the life you want, with the resources you have.

This hypothetical client of yours doesn’t need another savings projection. She needs the permission to stop, and to make her job work for her. The real advice isn’t: ‘Work a few more years’. It’s: ‘Let’s see how we can make this more sustainable.’

When continuing to earn comes at a cost

I’ve heard from advisers that many of their clients in their later years feel pressure to stay the course. They’re not quite ‘at target’ for retirement yet, and the finish line feels just out of reach. But the job itself – the thing meant to sustain their retirement – might actually be harming their ability to enjoy it.

Is this where traditional advice models could be falling short? Because, what do you say when the best ‘financial’ advice is to slow down and earn less to live longer?

Reframing the advice conversation

This is where advisers can add real value. Not just in forecasting, but in perspective. Helping clients think through some key questions to living a long, happy life – questions like:

• What kind of health will I have when I finally retire?
• What lifestyle am I preserving, and what am I sacrificing to get there?
• Is the stress I'm under helping or hindering my long-term goals?

One of the most powerful things you can offer as an adviser is a vision of what's possible when you factor in life, not just numbers.

That’s the whole premise of a type of financial adviser who puts financial wellbeing at the forefront. I call this a ‘human-centric’ adviser. Someone who focuses on understanding their clients’ deeper needs and what motivates them – looking beyond finances, and discovering what brings their clients joy and purpose instead.

How to guide the conversation

Here are a few ideas to help you refocus your client conversations – bringing joy and purpose to the forefront:

1. Normalise 'less' as a valid outcome
   Clients often expect the goal is always ‘more’: more savings, more years of work, more retirement income. But often, a smaller pot and a longer, healthier life is a better trade-off.
   
   
2. Suggest alternative pathways
   Could they switch to part-time? Consult instead of manage? Use savings now to bridge into semi-retirement? Model scenarios that prioritise sustainability over maximisation.
   
   
3. Factor in the real cost of health
   Anxiety, burnout, and chronic stress can have compounding effects. If your client spends the final stretch of their career depleting their health, retirement won't look the way they’d hoped. Health is not separate from wealth, it is wealth – in the sentiments of Daniel Crosby.¹
   
   
4. Give permission to recalibrate
   Sometimes the most valuable thing an adviser can say is: ‘It’s OK to do less – or something different.’ Financial planning is life planning. And the best plans change with the person.
   
   
5. Listen for more than numbers
   What’s their tone when they talk about work? Do they light up or shut down? Ask: ‘If you could afford to stop tomorrow, would you?’ That answer should be considered in the financial plan you build and shape for your client.

Anxiety is information

As Daniel suggests in our podcast: anxiety isn’t just noise. It’s a signal. If your client is anxious about continuing work, there’s something to explore. Is your client in the wrong role? Is it time to restructure their life plan?

Suppressing those signals could lead to poor decisions, whereas exploring them could lead to clarity.

What really matters

So, when a client tells you they’re not financially ‘ready’ to retire, but they’re constantly unwell, disconnected from their relationships, and have the ‘Sunday scaries’... Then the most helpful advice won’t be to push them harder. It’ll likely be to invite them to pause, take a breath, and ask them what ‘ready’ really means, or looks like.

You want to help them retire at a time when they still have health, energy, and joy to enjoy it.

Some advisers, who focus on performance, believe that the ultimate success of a financial plan is in the size of the pot. The performance of the policy portfolio versus the benchmark portfolio.

The human-centric adviser, who puts joy and purpose first, believes that ultimate success of a financial plan is in the quality of the life it enables. Which one would you rather be?