In the parish to which i belong, about 20 retired men and women attend an 8:15 a.m. Mass every day. They then spend the rest of the morning working around the church, tending the garden, polishing silver or washing and ironing linens. One woman, a former accountant, keeps the parish books up to date. At noon, many head out to socialize over lunch.

Their common religious beliefs bring them together; their volunteer work structures their days and gives them a sense of productivity and self-worth.

This is just one way in which religion plays a part in older people’s lives. It can also nurture their spiritual development, which becomes increasingly important as people age. “Being part of a religious community may be part of our spirituality, but not necessarily,” says John Harries, a United Church minister and a retirement lifestyle consultant in Aurora, Ont. “Atheists have spiritual needs to fulfil. Spirituality is our expression of the values in which we believe.”

Understanding your senior clients’ spiritual values is an important component of developing a rewarding relationship with them, says Harries. It is a chance to ensure that both the financial and spiritual bottom lines work together to create a final chapter that is well worth experiencing.

Sterling Rempel, a financial advisor with Calgary-based Future Values Estate & Financial Planning and a member of the Mennonite Church of Canada, considers knowing your client’s religious beliefs and spiritual values an important part of the know-your-client rule. “The [beliefs and values] are fundamental to who a person is and affect every part of his or her life, even the financial,” he says. “A woman who was recently referred to me said her former advisor had told her she couldn’t afford charitable giving. My response was that this was one of her core values and we should plan accordingly for it.

“Another one of my older clients has four kids. He says he has five children and the last ‘child’ is his charitable concerns. So 20% of his estate is going to charity.”

Rempel says clients often like to have advisors who hold religious or spiritual values that are similar to theirs. “I’d suggest people ask advisors what their beliefs or values are in this regard before they start working with them,” he says. And advisors who mention their charitable or volunteer involvement on their Web sites or in promotional material will inform prospective clients about their values.

Lee Raine, a partner at G2 Financial Group in Calgary and a past Advocis chairman, notes that older clients often want to talk about aging and dying. “They wonder what’s coming next,” he says. “Sometimes they’ll share things with advisors that they can’t with their families. We’re that important third party.”

A Methodist lay minister, Raine has celebrated funerals for clients and their family members, and he has been with some when they were dying. “People want to talk about dying,” he says. “And family doesn’t. They put out all these goofy statements of hope that make it difficult for their loved ones to move on. I told one family, ‘She needs to hear you say it’s OK for her to go’.”

As well, older people need to share their life stories. Advisors should be sensitive to this, Harries says. “Narrative gerontology,” a form of storytelling, with clients involves three stages:

> Listening to older clients’ stories. “They need to tell these stories to pass on a legacy of their wisdom and get perspective on their lives,” he says.

> reflecting on the life stories. “You can help clients review their lives by asking questions such as ‘What made you do that?’ or ‘What did you do then?’” Harries says.

> Meditation. It allows the older person to sit quietly with his or her story. “In the silence with my story comes wisdom, the divine,” Harries says.

An alternative to storytelling may be helping an older client create a life scrapbook. A handsome scrapbook can be presented as a gift for a birthday or another occasion, and the client can be encouraged to fill its pages with photos, drawings letters, cards, announcements, readings — anything with special significance from the past.
Harries notes that levels of spiritual intensity, faith and commitment ebb and wane. He compares phases of spirituality to the four Canadian seasons:

> Summer. This is the time of the heat and passion of an individual’s spiritual or religious conviction, a time of commitment.

@page_break@> Autumn. This is a more reflective season, a time for standing back, entertaining questions and trying to resolve them.

> Winter. This is the bleak season when the spiritual landscape is frozen; a person may be depressed because of a health problem or because a spouse has died.

> Spring. This season brings a sense of renewal, a sense of hope.

“It’s important to realize that these phases fluctuate, [and] that hope, even fervour, may be renewed down the road,” Harries says.
IE