Child-free couples often overlooked in planning

By Susan Rupe

One in five adults in the U.S. identify as being child-free, according to a recent Michigan State University study.

When Jay Zigmont was studying for his Certified Financial Planner designation, he wondered why there was nothing in his CFP education that discussed child-free couples. Zigmont is founder of Childfree Wealth, based in Water Valley, Miss.

“In our CFP training, they discussed advising people before having kids and then they discussed the empty nest. But the concept of giving advice to someone who doesn’t have kids and who isn’t going to have kids doesn’t exist,” he said. “You realize there are a lot of people who are not getting the right advice for them. It’s not one size fits all.”

Zigmont and his wife are among the child-free adult population. He wants to debunk many of the assumptions about child-free couples and their money.

“There's an assumption that being child-free makes you rich, but the truth is that it doesn't,” he said.

The child-free couples he works with are more concerned with spending their money during their lifetimes instead of leaving it behind when they die.

“I would say that 95% or more of my clients don’t care about how much money they have when they die. So we have an interesting discussion about not only saving money but spending it. We talk about how they can create a life that really reflects what they want.”

Fitting finances to your life

Zigmont's advice to child-free couples is “to start by figuring out what they want their life to be and then fitting their finances to that.”

“A lot of couples are dual income, no kids. They probably live on one salary and ore of the probably can live without one salary if they need to. So we start by asking, what do you want to do when you grow up? Which is king of tongue in cheek, but it’s my way of asking them what they want for the rest of their lives.”

Many of Zigmont's clients go on to create new careers and new businesses.

“They’re investing in themselves and in their lives,” he said. “They want to be more than what stocks can do.”

But just because a couple has no children doesn’t mean they don’t worry about money, Zigmont said.

“I had a meeting with a client today. We went through all their money worries and they’re worried about running out of money,” he said. “I showed them that when they die, they will have a lot of money left over. And they’re like, what? Then what do I do now? I call that the child-free midlife crisis. They hit their professional and financial goals and now they need to figure out what’s next.”

Long-term care must be addressed

One issue that child-free couples must address, he said, is long-term care.

“I encourage all my clients to figure out their long-term care plan,” he said. “I actually had clients who were ready to buy long-term care insurance but had to wait six months because no one would give them a quote until they turned 30. That’s how eager my clients were to get that part of their plan taken care of.”

Helping clients find someone to serve as their trustee or power of attorney when they don’t have children to assign that task to is another issue Zigmont said his clients must address.

“I’m trying to find a good national trustee service to work with because the challenge is if you’re single and child-free and don’t have close family or friends – who will look out for you and work on your behalf?”

Susan Rupe is managing editor for InsuranceNewsNet. She formerly served as communications director for an insurance agents' association and was an award-winning newspaper reporter and editor. Contact her at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @INNsusan.