An Advisor's Resource

This month, in addition to daily dispatches that can be accessed on an advisor's computer desktop, Life Event Services will highlight its new life planner. The 12-page document serves as a personal document locator for dozens of items, including wills, passports, divorce papers, medical contacts — even contact information for the family plumber and electrician. It also answers tough questions that never get asked in a lot of families: Do you want a funeral? What hymns do you want sung? What are your wishes for your pets, in the event of your death? There's also space for biographical data that can be shifted into an obituary.

The life planner can be downloaded — or filled out online. "It covers all the information that, if something happened to you, your spouse would need to know," says Schaefer. "It's just a great starting point."

Other documents that have been disseminated: a document retention reminder, outlining when you should shred or retain important papers, and a wallet-size personal medical record card, listing medications, dosages, allergies and health-care providers. "The biggest reason health care gets delayed is because you don't have that information when you need it," according to Schaefer. Life Event Services had 35,000 of the cards in stock; they were gone in three days.

Like her job, Schaefer's career path has been anything but traditional. She grew up in Virginia and began working for a manufacturing facility right out of high school. At one point, she ran a plant with 500 employees in Pennsylvania that produced electronic connectors for the military.

Fourteen years ago, after her father was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, Schaefer returned to Virginia to be close to her parents. She ran a manufacturing plant there for six years, then joined the Virginia Department for the Aging as programs director. "We were dealing with the frailest of the frail, the poorest of the poor," notes Schaefer.

When Wachovia hired her, she was Virginia's director of long-term care. She had been introduced to Wachovia when representatives from the firm consulted with her department on long-term care and aging issues.

The chief topics advisors now query her about involve Social Security, taxes, health care, long-term care and Medicare. While much of the unit's work involves aging, Schaefer says she's also designing programs aimed at younger people.

"Because all of us are beginning to ask these questions, thank God we're reaching people earlier — in their 30s and 40s. As advisors go through the planning process with their clients, all these things come into play. It's not just about their retirement income and how to pay the light bill, it's all these other issues," she says.

On a board in Schaefer's office is a list of 40 topics financial advisors have told her they'd like to see addressed in the coming year — domestic partnership, creditor protection and grandparents raising grandchildren, among them.

"People are learning that investment planning is not just about the dollars and the performance. It's about all of these life goals and concerns," she says. "And I think we've just touched the tip of the iceberg."

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Freelance writer Ellen Uzelac is based in Chestertown, Md.; the former West Coast bureau chief and national correspondent for The Baltimore Sun, can be reached at [email protected].