Advice or information– financial aged care expert Assyat David warns that seniors and sector must know the difference to prevent decisions that cannot be undone

A glaring complexity in aged care has been growing, seniors not knowing how much care services are going to cost them, and how to prepare for it. What has eventuated, aged care expert Assyat David says, is that now more than ever, seniors are looking for trustworthy, skilled and insightful financial advice, with implications for well-meaning but unqualified provider and public-service staff. The growing problem is compounded by a “maze-like” My Aged Care portal, framed as the one-stop-shop for aged care answers. In understandable desperation, experts are seeing that seniors are taking advice from personnel who are not licensed, equipped, or informed enough to provide it. Also of concern, financial advice is seemingly coming from government sources, who, while being well-intentioned, should not be providing financial “should do’s”. The clarity between financial information and advice has never been more important, David says. Seniors and the sector must be empowered to know the difference and safeguard against decisions and harm that cannot be undone.

The context reality

The complexity of ageing and attempting to navigate the system has become a frustrating reality for both senior and provider staff-member alike. The inspector-general of Aged Care, Natalie Siegel-Brown, handed down findings recently that assessed, in no uncertain terms, that using the government’s My Aged Care website was akin to attempting to navigate a maze. Providers too are sharing that with the new rules and scheme changes, personnel are spending more time than ever on paperwork and walking alongside clients to figure out services and funding.

Across the board the complexity of trying to figure it out, for senior and sector, has had consequences. Provider heads have shared prevalent reports that show staff are increasingly on the phone to distressed and confused seniors. Parsing through reams of legalese and contracts for individual assessments, reassessments, packages and funding has meant seniors, and by extension providers, are more beleaguered by bureaucracy and paperwork than ever. The need for answers has seniors asking Services Australia and provider staff on what to do. David says this environment of confusion has led to seniors understandably looking for help. The rising need for answers has resulted in the potential for harm widening. Many sincere staff, who want to support but are not licensed or equipped, are unintentionally edging into giving out financial advice.

A reset of clarity is needed, David says. The difference of financial information and advice must be known by seniors and professionals in the sector. David and her partner started Aged Care Steps, an aged care financial service to provide expert advice in the right way. But she believes there always remains a responsibility to step in, to push for clarity and protections on a sector-wise scale. She shares that ethical and professional drivers compelled her and her team to step forward to protect seniors and the sector through their white paper on this growing concern.

Transparency and trust

David has spent decades in financial services. From funds management and investment-related work, to consultancy and general management, she was energised by work that involved research, technical excellence, meeting compliance and fitting it all into dynamic real-world situations. She shares that co-founding Aged Care Steps was a culmination of seeking to support the aged care industry to deliver strategic and ethical advice, putting together strategy and support that honoured seniors and professionalism.

She shares that aged care financial advice is a critical and delicate intersection of understanding extreme complexity, building relationship and doing so within the guardrails of the best training and compliance, “you have to constantly assess how to incorporate aged care advice into an individual’s life stage in a way that supports them based on what’s important to them.”

“You have to support them in thinking about all their options and how they can structure their assets and life appropriately.”

In this intersection of life, ageing and finances, there is vulnerability, she shares. Systems excellence, trust and transparency must be at the heart of aged care financial advice. In stepping up to start the conversation and invest resources in the white paper, David and Aged Care Steps saw this vulnerability of seniors and seeking financial answers being compromised not predominantly by malicious actors but through ignorance and lack of clarity. With well-meaning staff members inadvertently providing financial advice without training, without accreditation and with the likelihood of significant harm that couldn’t be undone, David and her team knew educational empowerment must be supported.

“Through the white paper we wanted to challenge the industry and say, we don’t think what’s happening is right.”

David says, “we want to highlight that there’s work that we all have to do, we want to raise awareness about what’s happening and the ideas about how to try and fix it.”

“With aged care now, the big push with this white paper is to really try to get advisors in the industry, and individuals, to think about how from the aged care perspective we can make sure that seniors get the right advice and that the sector only gives advice that protects the consumer.”

A growing trend

“We’re finding more and more that staff and groups in the aged care sector are providing financial advice to clients in a way that actually influences seniors to make a decision around how they’re going to fund their move to care. What we’re really concerned about is the quality and accuracy of that information. We see a growing trend of misleading clients into making decisions.”

David and her team have spoken with seniors, hearing stories of how staff who are not financial advisors, and mostly well-meaning, have started to inadvertently provide influential financial advice.

David shares that staff members are unintentionally influencing, “very significant life decisions around aged care, and not having the proper support and training to do so.”

She points to the environment that seniors and providers are in. The rules have changed, the complexity around aged care has increased, the costs of aged care and funding have altered, all these changes have culminated in growing alarm and confusion when making decisions for aged care services.

“Whether they keep or sell their house, whether they use super or a spouses, or any other assets to help them fund their move into care, its impact on the aged care pension, means-testing repercussions on aged care fees, cash-flow and estate planning, all these things are quite complex and advisors must understand the entire picture.”

David shares the stakes at play, “[even] one decision then has implications on a range of different outcomes.”

“We’re finding that groups and individuals are providing advice or guidance to clients around how they should go about these decisions, those individuals who aren’t registered financial advisors are influencing clients to make decisions around how to fund their move into care that can’t be undone, without the proper training and an incomplete view of the consequences.”

“You cannot unsell a house.”

Information versus advice

“What we’re really trying to do is try and get consumers and the sector to really understand the difference between information and advice.”

David says, “if someone is giving information it might be around things like, ‘here are the steps that you go through in order to access care’. OK, well, that’s great. That’s useful information about what the next steps are.”

“Or it could be that they’re saying,’ look, here’s what your aged care fees are going to be based on the income and assets that you’ve told me’. As long as they’ve got that right information. And they plug it into a calculator correctly, then that’s not too bad. That’s just giving them information around what their [senior] situation is.”

“Where it starts to unravel is if they move into the next step.”

David explains, “but where it starts to kind of move into that gray area where the advice comes down into, ‘Oh, it’s going to cost me that much. So how do I pay for that? What should I do?’ That’s when they [staff], and it [conversation] starts to fall into influencing the client to make a decision about, their home, or it could be around using their superannuation or taking money out of their cash account or, other investments in order to fund that move into care.”

She says it’s when the conversation progresses into the area of “‘this is what you should do in order to move into care’, that is in our view where it becomes advice and needs to be very clearly under the domain of a financial advisor.”

For many of the protections for seniors in the aged care sector, much of that push has come from conscientious, excellence and heart-felt experts and advocates stepping forward. David showcases this, “we’re just asking that there be clarity around the application of those regulations to aged care.”

While she affirms the great work of many in the sector providing information, she shares that it is important for seniors and sector staff to safeguard themselves against unintended harm, “the client needs to be aware of what is advice and what is information, and that they need to get advice from someone who is a licensed advisor.”

Knowledge is strength

As shared, David notes how the complexity of one financial decision towards aged care can have significant implications, and in aged care there are many decisions, so the ripples grow wider, “those decisions have implications for themselves, their estate, we’re working to support seniors and the sector to both be aware, for seniors to ask a couple of questions.”

David suggests, “simple questions asked can safeguard both senior and staff member, ‘is this purely just information’ or ‘are you providing me with advice, financial advice?’” She also encourages the asking of “what are the educational or ethical requirements of the person supporting them.”

Small actions may go a long way to safeguard all, “just doing some due diligence, if you like, on the person that they’re going to be seeking guidance from or making these important life decisions.”

To empower seniors to ask, and staff members to have top of mind sorting information from advice is “to ensure that they are acting in the best interest of the client.”

Normalising asking questions for seniors is supporting, “checking that the person that they’re dealing with is on the financial advisory register, which is very easy to do by going on the ASIC website, or asking some of those questions so that they can be aware of who it is that’s supporting them and who it is that’s guiding them and the [appropriate] limitations of the support that they can provide.”

Providers protecting staff and organisation

David says the push for clarity is not just to protect seniors, it’s to protect the sector. For providers and staff, it can be easy to unintentionally fall into giving financial advice and the consequences can be severe.

“The problem is that a lot of those [sector staff] people are stepping into advice, as opposed to just providing information. Even Centrelink has often, we’ve found, been giving advice around, ‘this is what you should do around how to fund your move into care.’”

She has heard of well meaning aged care facilities starting with information but falling into advice, and “influencing those [financial] decisions.” 

“And the problem with all of that is none of those people have got the support or credentials, for one thing. But also they don’t have consumer protection measures in place.”

David explains, “so with an advisor, if a client is unhappy with an advisor, then there’s a whole lot of different support that’s available to them. As well, the advisor has to meet a code of ethics, which means that they have to act in the client’s best interest and they have to have education to ensure that they’ve got competency to give advice in that area.”

 “Well, those two things alone are not necessarily available to all those other groups that are not operating under a license.”

She shares that with provider and government staff, who inherently have profound trust from being seen as experts, there is a pull to listen and follow what is said. So for provider or government agency staff to give advice there can be significant trust without the protections in place, to safeguard the quality and accuracy of the advice as well as systemic steps of re-dress if complaints are filed.

David highlights, “if something goes wrong, then the advisor has professional indemnity insurance in place, so if a client has a complaint, it can go through established steps. Those processes are not available to protect seniors and staff, if no financial advisor was involved.”

Next steps

David and the Aged Care Steps’ white paper are seeking to make sector change that builds trust through knowledge, for the everyday. For seniors and loved-ones to be educated about simple questions to ask, to safeguard themselves, and also to partner with providers who have staff stepping into advice unintentionally, knowledge is a game-changer. David and her team are looking to uplift sector professionals to be aware of the pitfalls that staff could be falling into, and to update training and resources accordingly.

“A lot of this is not necessarily done out of spite or coming from a bad place. Staff are usually just trying to support people but if they don’t fully understand the circumstances, or have the education, support, tools and accreditation, then through their support they might be causing more harm than good.”

“And they need to be careful around that.”

For policy to safeguard, David encourages all facility providers to “be very clear about what staff can and can’t do, and be equipped to explain that to any senior.”

“They can probably, if they have the right information, calculate what the person’s aged care fees would be. But they can’t influence the client to tell them how they need to rearrange their assets or finances in order to fund their move to care.”

David believes in the interconnected partnerships of aged care as another solution. No one provider should be responsible to do it all. She cherishes her relationships with providers, built over years of earning trust and supporting seniors with varying skills. When it comes to that “‘you should do’, as soon as you start to get to that line, then the conversation is moving into financial advice, and they [staff] are not authorized to do that, for one thing, but they can be encouraged to step into the needed partnerships.”

David says partnerships are important, “to have partnerships in place with professional advisors who do have the credentials to provide aged care advice and the insurance requisite insurance if things do go poorly [means preparation]. And obviously clients need to be able to have the appropriate channels of complaint so it really does safeguard everyone.”

Early preparation

David sees current reform as having significant impacts on the financial advice space, for both seniors and sector, “the reasons why the government made changes are valid but the balancing act now is that in seeking fairness in aged care rules there is a flip side of greater confusion and complexity.”

“That’s why in these circumstances [cross-professional support is key], it’s not just complex for individuals but for facilities. Anyone who’s operating in that space, trying to bring down complete and accurate understanding and explanation for someone based on their personal circumstances is now at its most complex.”

David says, “given all in this situation, that’s why it’s important that seniors and provider leadership think about understanding the system, and what it means for them, and their options early on, and not leaving it for a crisis situation.”

She shares that the Aged Care Steps team, “put in our own resources, time and effort and funding towards raising the awareness around financial advice issues” because safeguarding against elder abuse, against the consequences of bad advice, unintentional or not, is professionally and ethically important.

Knowledge can safeguards seniors from incomplete or error-ridden advice that cannot be undone, and the harm that could result. David advocates that it is worthwhile for aged care leadership to train in the difference of advice and information, and that seniors know to ask simple questions. Such a push is change coming from within the sector for the sector. Far from government involvement, this move is due to sincere, smart and heart-felt sector leaders pushing for knowledge and progress through clarity, to ensure the best for senior and sector alike.