Financial Insecurities that are Leading to Poverty in the Aging Population

Recommendations to Address Concern: Propose a recommendation to address the concern
based on your previous analysis. Justify your recommendation with evidence.
In the United States, as well as in other nations across the world, individuals are
responsible for their financial well-being. Before the 1980’s individuals mainly in the United
States were heavily reliant on retirement income to secure their futures (Bucciol, Quercia &
Sconti, 2021). However, this has changed, and the generation of baby boomers as well the
generations to come will have to rely on social security as well as employer-sponsored benefit
programs. Financing one’s golden years is also heavily reliant on defined contributions as well as
individual retirement accounts. These contribution plans have various advantages, including
allowing a lot of room for flexibility. However, one major disadvantage is the fact that it imposes
the responsibility of saving on individuals. It also places the responsibility of decumulating the
savings responsibly on the individuals. To this end, one of the recommendations that can help
alleviate financial insecurities among the aging is proper sensitization on the same.
Many elderly individuals have limited financial resources. The number of the elderly that
are struggling is increasing. Federal funding for social security programs has been decreasing
over the years (Bucciol, Quercia & Sconti, 2021). The implication is that educating the elderly
on financial and social resilience is an important starting point. Individuals need to be taught how
to cope and slow with the shifts that are experienced in life. Financial security can only be
achieved through adequate planning before one retires. This means that every person who is in
their productive years needs to understand the implication of retirement and how to ensure that
they enroll in programs that will stimulate savings as well as proper spending habits. It is also

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important to expand federal funding for seniors. Most seniors in retirement funding programs,
social security, and Medicare lack sufficient funds to cater to their everyday needs. Increasing
the government input while at the same time redesigning the existing programs to be more
responsive to the needs of the seniors can help ensure that their needs are prioritized.
B. Communication Strategies: Propose strategies for appropriately communicating your
previous recommendation to the aging population, justifying how your proposed strategies
are appropriate. Consider the specific tools for communicating the recommendation and
why these tools are most appropriate for the aging population. Justify your
recommendation with evidence.
Discussions on financial literacy with the elderly could be complicated. While the aging
population needs to be educated on financial decisions, these conversations need to be structured.
Many elderly people take time to accept the fact that their independence could be compromised.
Educating their children and other caregivers can greatly help ensure that the elderly get the
much-needed financial help. Children and caregivers are the best positioned to offer financial
literacy lessons to the elderly. They have a better understanding of their parents’ financial
position, and this can greatly help them understand how to make wise financial decisions that
will not have an adverse effect on their financial health. Financial experts should seek to
communicate with the children and caregivers of the elderly.
The communication should center on how to manage their estate as well as how to take
proper insurance cover. Further, it is important to inform the elderly about resources that they
can take advantage of. These resources include federal programs as well as low-cost services that
can help save money (Xue et al., 2019). Living arrangements that are cost-effective should also
be discussed to ensure that the individuals do not run into a financial crisis. Financial education

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should be extended to nursing homes. A large population of the elderly live in nursing care
homes. Stakeholders should ensure that financial literacy experts are deployed to these care
facilities to ensure that they understand how to make solid financial decisions in their old age.
Communicating requires a case-to-case basis. Enough information concerning the involved party
must be gathered. While such a conversation would involve feelings and emotions, it is
important to steer the conversation away from emotive subjects that could hinder the delivery of
information (Selvadurai, Kenayathulla & Siraj, 2018). Questions include the amount of money
they have to finance their income retirement. After identifying basic financial information, the
discussion can proceed to other more advanced issues, including budgeting and possible
investments.
C. Tailor Communication Strategies: Explain how you will target your communication
strategies to meet the potentially diverse needs of the aging population. For example, how
will you tailor your communication strategies to be appropriate for individuals who are
blind, homebound, or deaf?
Communication is on a case-to-case basis. As a result, the unique needs of the client will
define the communication. To this end, different communication strategies will be employed
based on the client in question (Romiti & Rossi, 2014). Engaging experts in different forms of
communication will help ensure that the needs of the elderly are taken into consideration. For
clients who are deaf, sign language experts will be engaged. The experts will help ensure that the
message is passed in sign language. Appropriate etiquette will also be employed. Being polite
and attentive is one of the ways through which the message being passed across will be
understood. In the case of blind clients, it will be important to ensure that the use of braille
pamphlets is done. The aim is to ensure that the message is passed across to patients who are

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homebound. Visits to care facilities and homes that take care of the elderly will be helpful in
addressing a diverse client base.
The communication strategies must also be tailored to meet the specific diverse needs of
the aging population. Like in ordinary population settings, older adults are diverse in age, sex,
health care, economic needs, tastes and preferences, perceptions about saving and retirement,
employment, and other things that might affect their retirement planning decisions. Since
retirement planning discussions consider multiple factors affecting older adults’ socioeconomic,
health, and environment, it is necessary to develop specific messages that consider these diverse
needs.
For example, how the planner communicates about retirement plans to an African
American from a low-income neighborhood with chronic diabetes type 2 will be different from
how he will communicate the same message to a white client from an affluent neighborhood.
Their economic and social backgrounds are different, and the social and economic benefits,
whether federally-funded or self-sponsored, are also different. A good planner will tailor unique
communication strategies to address the needs of the two diverse individuals by acknowledging
prejudices that might exist due to class differences.
Finally, as mentioned above, the most critical communication consideration is the client’s
communication preference, physical needs, and messaging tools available. For example, the
planner can develop voice recordings to communicate to blind elderly clients. For the deaf,
hiring a sign language interpreter can assist pass the same messages. These two examples reflect
how planners can tailor messages to meet the potentially diverse needs of older people.

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References

Bucciol, A., Quercia, S., & Sconti, A. (2021). Promoting financial literacy among the elderly:
Consequences on confidence. Journal of Economic Psychology, 87, 102428.
Xue, R., Gepp, A., O’Neill, T. J., Stern, S., & Vanstone, B. J. (2019). Financial literacy amongst
elderly Australians. Accounting & Finance, 59, 887-918.
Selvadurai, V., Kenayathulla, H. B., & Siraj, S. (2018). Financial literacy education and
retirement planning in Malaysia. MOJEM: Malaysian Online Journal of Educational
Management, 6(2), 41-66.
Romiti, A., & Rossi, M. (2014). Wealth decumulation, portfolio composition and financial
literacy among European elderly. CeRP–Collegio Carlo Alberto, Carlo Alberto
Notebooks, (375).