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Elder planning counsellors

Canadians aged 50 and older have more assets than any other group in the country. But understanding their attitudes to money, property and the rest requires some instruction, especially among nurses, social service providers and the like who deal with the 50-plus set a lot of the time.

DAVID CHILTON

[ 2006-03-15 ]

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One of the ways to understand is to take the three-and-a-half-day course soon to be offered by the Canadian Initiative for Elder Planning Studies and Seneca College. The course will lead to the designation of Elder Planning Counsellor.

Gary Butler, director of the Centre for Financial Services at Seneca, says Canadians are greying and they and the industries that serve them, such as insurance, need to learn more. Hence the introduction of the Elder Planning Counsellor program in late spring or early summer.

Jim Ruta, a consultant to the CIEPS, says, "It was obvious that there was a lot of information that just wasn't getting out to people about the older demographic, the 50-plus clientele. There was a number of U.S. programs that had been around for a little while, but none of them were really suitable to the Canadian marketplace."

The program, without Seneca's involvement, has been available since 2003 at various locations in Ontario and Canada and has produced 1,500 graduates.

The Elder Planning Counsellor program lasts three and a half days, as noted, but there's more to it than that. Ruta says there are 1,200 pages of financial and other material to study before students hit the classroom. Among the topics the students can expect to study are How Society Deals with the Social Aspects of Aging, Elders and Fraud Abuse, Retirement and Investment Basics for Elders and Legacy Planning. At the conclusion of the in-class instruction, there's a three-hour exam on the fourth day.

Ruta says classroom teaching plus the pre-study books cost $995. The program is also available by distance learning and costs $1,095.

Although the most interest in the program is being shown by those who work in the financial services industries, Ruta says there are increasing numbers of registered nurses, social workers and so on who want to find out more, reasoning that the more they know the more effective they will be in their jobs.

Butler says the number of sessions Seneca will offer depends on demand, and the number of students in each class will vary, "but 50 runs very nicely." He also says depending on the reception to the program at Seneca the study period could be spread out over a longer period with fewer hours spent in class. "We could put on one a week. It depends on demand and instructor availability, because the instructors are experts in their (respective) fields," Butler says.

Donna Ritch, a registered nurse based in Whitby, took the course in September 2004, and is succinct about its merit: "A nurse who takes the program gets Financial 101." That doesn't mean she is then trained to start offering financial advice, Ritch says, but it does allow her to recommend places where older Canadians can start looking for help. Another benefit of the course for those in care-giving positions is that it provides a broad perspective given the differences of occupation and outlook among the students, Ritch says.

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