Retirement Planning Has a Healthcare Problem
Boldin AI had 281,980 conversations with clients in the first four months of 2026. These conversations showed what clients are concerned about and where financial advisors have planning opportunities.
33,000 of those 281,980 conversations were about healthcare costs.
But why are clients turning to AI instead of their financial advisors? Because retirement planning has a healthcare problem.
Case in point: 65% of financial planning clients expect their advisors to offer health insurance guidance, but only 4% of those clients reported that this is an area their advisors offer guidance on.
This reveals a lot, but here are the two I want to highlight:
Clients don’t feel they have a trusted person to go to for questions about healthcare costs in retirement.
Healthcare planning can help financial advisors differentiate themselves and improve retirement plans.
The Problem With Assuming
One of the most common mistakes I see advisors make is assuming their clients aren’t worried about healthcare costs because they’re wealthy. One look at the clients we help at Move Health dispels this myth.
As an example, here’s a real client case study about Gina*, a financial planning client with a net worth of $15 million.
Despite her high net worth, Gina was still cost-conscious about the healthcare coverage she would select to bridge the gap in her coverage from her retirement age of 61 until Medicare eligibility at 65. So much so that, prior to her advisor acknowledging the diligence required when selecting coverage, Gina had planned to enroll in the cheapest health insurance option possible.
Luckily, Gina’s advisor avoided this would-be mistake with his healthcare planning offering. And Gina isn’t an edge case.
Two-thirds of high-net-worth investors reported wanting more personalization in their wealth management relationships, and 89% of ultra-high-net-worth individuals prefer to receive value-added services from a single source.
Plus, healthcare planning is often not so much about cutting costs, but rather, providing peace of mind and trusted guidance in a stressful situation. Regardless of income, I hear clients of financial advisors say every day, “How was I ever supposed to figure this out on my own?”
Just like financial planning isn't just about saving money, neither is healthcare planning. It's about being the go-to person for your clients in all areas of life that impact their financial and retirement plans.
So, how do you become that person without getting a degree in healthcare policy or becoming a licensed insurance broker?
Starting The Conversation
Obviously, I recommend partnering with Move Health to handle the heavy lifting and technicalities of healthcare planning for you, but if you’re going to have a conversation with clients on your own, here’s what you need to know:
Identifying the right clients at the right time
First, identify clients who most need a healthcare planning conversation in the near future. We’ll use clients who plan to retire this year and are younger than 64. Once you have your list, it’s time to reach out to them to discuss optimizing their healthcare coverage for retirement.
For example, let’s say you have a 62-year-old client who has a target retirement date of December 31st, 2026. For proactive healthcare planning, you decide to send them an email on June 15th, 2026, that reminds and congratulates the client about their upcoming retirement date, and proposes a meeting to specifically discuss health insurance during retirement
Healthcare planning basics
Continuing with the example above, the next step is to prepare for the meeting by familiarizing yourself with the coverage options available to pre-65 retirees. These are:
The ACA Marketplace
COBRA
A spouse’s employer-sponsored health insurance plan
Short-term health plans
Healthcare sharing programs
You can see a full breakdown of each in this free guide.
Closing Thoughts
Ultimately, the solution to retirement planning’s healthcare problem is proactiveness.
Financial advisors are proactive in all areas of retirement and financial planning. They stress-test plans based on market performance and optimize tax scenarios over the next 15 years. But when it comes to health insurance, many take a reactive approach.
This is partly because there weren’t solutions for healthcare planning before, but now that there are, there’s no excuse for advisors to leave healthcare planning out of the retirement plan. Advisors who continue to leave healthcare planning up to their clients to figure out on their own (with or without the help of AI) put the retirement plans they and their clients have worked so hard on at risk.
