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"
Abigail Golder is the Director of Marketing & Product at Credit & Debt and Director of Monetization at IDIQ.
Credit & Debt launched in 2019 with Abigail as a member of the foundational senior leadership team. Abigail spearheaded the brand creation, design, and development, managed its release, and currently leads both product and marketing for the company, which helped fuel the acquisition by IDIQ in June 2022. She earned her bachelor’s degree Cum Laude in Journalism at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University, and received the prestigious Provost’s Award Scholarship.
