Chances are several of your own clients are juggling three financial lives at once: their own financial plan, a young adult who is trying to get established, and an aging parent they are beginning to worry about. According to Pew Research Center, 25% of U.S. adults fit the "sandwich generation" definition, and among adults in their 40s that number is 54%. Pew also found that 59% of parents of adults ages 18 to 34 gave financial help in the prior year, and 36% of those who helped said it hurt their own finances at least some. Credit rarely comes up until it gets in the way: the first apartment lease, a mortgage application, a divorce settlement, or a parent's unfamiliar account. By then, your options, and your client's, may already be narrower than they needed to be.
In this practical session with credit-score expert Abigail Golder from IDIQ, we'll look at credit through the lens of the family and give you a framework for raising the topic early, without turning your appointments into credit-repair sessions.
We'll walk through 3 situations you're likely to see:
- A client balancing their own plan: How family support can quietly become a recurring expense, and how to connect credit to the goal and timeline already in your plan.
- A young adult becoming independent: How to find out what is already reporting, and how to compare first-credit paths (an account in their own name, authorized-user status, and eligible bill reporting) so the parent's support leads somewhere.
- An aging parent: What to do when unfamiliar credit activity appears, why protection and permission are two separate questions, and who can act when there is a problem.
Attendees will learn:
- The difference between a credit report and a credit score, and why a client can have many valid scores
- A 4-step way to review a credit report for the fact that could affect the next decision
- Three misconceptions to correct with clients, including "my app score is what the lender will see" and "I need to carry a balance to build credit"
