by joe innace
THE
POWER of
PERSISTENCE
pushing for power of attorney during a pandemic Slightly more than half of American adults have a power of attorney (POA) in place, according to a recent article from the AARP, with 83 percent of people over age 72 having this important document compared with 41 percent of millennials. Sadly, chances are many of the American victims and their families of COVID-19 did not have someone in place who was entrusted with financial decision-making.
A
s with most businesses this past year, the FFR Wealth Team of Northern Kentucky had to be pandemically nimble. The firm, like most financial advisors, pivoted proactively to helping clients over the phone or with more videobased calls and webinars. And it used such outreach to zero in on POA needs. FFR Wealth Team’s clients range in 44 / ADVISORS MAGAZINE
MAR 2021
age up to 98. “Initially, some clients were not as comfortable doing a video call, so part of the pivoting has been to reach out more diligently to their power of attorney, or their trusted contact,” Shelley Funke Frommeyer, CFP®, CEO, Founder and Wealth Advisor of FFR Wealth Team, told Advisors Magazine in a recent interview. “And it’s actually been a real positive to get so many of our aging clients more communicative with their family members that are going to help them with some of these financial
decisions,” she added. Funke Frommeyer estimates that the firm has been able to accelerate by years the typical timeframe for getting trusted contacts and POAs to join its phone or video calls. “It’s important to us to keep the clients’ priorities moving forward. Just in case a health situation arises, we need a financial power of attorney to authorize a clients need for additional redemptions. We’ve been especially persistent about this,” she said. And then, as part of those virtual visits and phone calls with a trusted contact, the FFR Wealth Team can more easily discuss detailed information, in order to serve a client’s best interest. For example, net worth can be summarized, banking information known and more. “Many clients simply don’t share such information with the person who they may think of as their power of
