Why is the long-term care conversation so difficult—and what would it take for advisors to have it well? In this episode, Harley Gordon, a founding member of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys and author of The Conversation, joins Scott Heinila to reframe long-term care planning from a product sale into a family conversation. Drawing on more than 40 years of work with families, Harley argues that the traditional approach—leaning on statistics, cost-of-care figures, and fear—gets advisors nowhere, both with clients who deeply believe an event won't happen to them and with financial advisors who dismiss the topic as a hustle. His alternative: stop talking about risk entirely, agree that it won't happen, and focus instead on the consequences to the people the client has committed their life to protecting. Along the way, Harley walks through a live hypothetical conversation, explains how an extended care event forces a reallocation of committed capital and cash flow, and makes the case for why advisors who believe deeply in the subject earn the right to build a plan that preserves a family's dignity and control.
In this conversation, Scott and Harley explore: