As baby boomers’ vision fades, the indignities are mounting. The You’re So Vain generation is groping its way through middle age, holding newspapers at arm’s length and squinting at the display screens on their cellphones.

Vanity aside, what matters most to advisors is whether their aging clients can read the securities and insurance documents — and the fine print they contain — that advisors send them. As an advisor, you may find yourself taking for granted that your boomer clients are fully informed — and they’re not.

According to Dr. David Maberley, associate professor of ophthalmology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, many vision problems are conditions of aging — and the bulk of the population is aging. “Ten years ago, we were treating the boomers’ parents,” he says. “Now it’s the boomers themselves.”

David Foot, professor of economics at the University of Toronto and co-author of Boom, Bust & Echo: Profiting from the demographic shift in the 21st century (Stoddart, 2001), thinks that blindness and low vision will hit crisis levels in Canada in about 20 years, as baby boomers hit their 70s. While a table of boomers hunkering over menus like an all-night study group may be fodder for a comedy revue, failing eyesight has serious implications. It can mean incorrectly reading dosage, preparation and use of medications; failure to read food and medication expiry dates; and incorrectly reading product-use instructions.

Dimming vision may also mean older clients are even less likely to read the fine print on securities documents. And it begs the question: why isn’t the financial services industry changing its practices to admit to this new reality?

Everything does seem lined up to discourage investors from making use of information provided by investment firms. “The Canadian Securities Administrators’ policy on disclosure is that firms don’t have to send information to investors unless they request it,” says Glorianne Stromberg, a commentator on the financial services industry in Toronto. “And a lot of what they do send is in type no bigger than 10 points, in fonts that are not the most legible and with tight leading [space between lines of type].

“I’d like to give firms the benefit of the doubt that they aren’t thinking about how to make it more difficult for investors,” she adds. “But there is no indication that they’ve put any thought into making things more accessible. The industry needs to consider the user’s experience.”

Smart firms are translating boomers’ needs into business opportunities. Publishing houses, including Penguin Group, Harlequin Enterprises, Random House and HarperCollins, have introduced large-print product lines.

The books have bigger font sizes and more generous leading between lines. And www.amazon.ca allows readers to search for large-print books on its site.

And there are steps advisors can take to help older clients with dimming eyesight.

Maberley suggests starting by looking at the physical layout of your office space: “Consider increasing the light/dark contrast in your office environment, especially with good contrast around stair areas and the contours of the floor. Add lighter colours where changes of levels take place to reduce the risk of falling. And remove scatter rugs and low coffee tables from well-travelled areas.”

Advisors can also print out copies of product information in large type for clients to study at home, he adds.

With more people online today, advisors’ Web sites have become an important tool in strengthening the client/advisor relationship. Companies such as Boston-based Fidelity Investments are making their Web sites easier for older clients and prospects to navigate. Tom Tullis, Fidelity’s senior vice president of user insight, heads a group that tests and develops “usability” tools for the firm’s 12 or more Web sites, including www.fidelity.ca.

“We bring people into our lab to learn about different groups’ behaviour on the Web,” Tullis says. “We’ve found boomers have trouble reading small text and that leading-edge boomers are ‘cautious clickers.’ They put their cursors over a link, then debate whether to click on it rather than just clicking. This is because they grew up in a world in which things couldn’t easily be fixed. There’s no “undo” button on a toaster.

“We decided we needed to be much more explanatory about our links,” he adds. “So, we added verbs to them, such as ‘Learn about Fidelity income portfolios,’ rather than just ‘Fidelity income portfolios’.”

@page_break@Older boomers often have difficulty determining where links are on a site, he adds. So, the links on Fidelity sites are not only underlined but also change colour when a cursor is placed over them.

Much of the type on Fidelity sites is black on a white background to provide the highest level of contrast. Generous leading is important for visibility, Tullis says, but not as important as contrast.

“Most people look to the top and the left side of the page for navigation directions,” he adds. “Our top list allows access to general information, such as preferred language and the site map. On the left side of the page, users can access areas that relate to their own context, such as “investor login” and “my links.”

Scalable fonts are next on Fidelity’s agenda. The firm is experimenting with giving users the ability to select three sizes of type on some of its sites outside Canada. Feedback from the lab shows boomers are taking advantage of this tool.

Tullis’ advice to advisors: you’ll want to check how your business’s Web site measures up in terms of visibility and accessibility. Is the type large enough? Is the contrast of type against background high?

You may also want to consider adding scalable fonts or even look into text-to-voice software that allows the printed word to be read out loud.

Maberley suggests considering other audio aids for clients: “You can send out your monthly newsletter and market update to clients in audio form.”

And when it comes to all those documents, you may want to lobby your firm and your regulator to boost the type’s point size. IE