Culture is a critical component of a company’s infrastructure. It’s a powerful tool that leaders can use to maintain organizational viability and effectiveness. It’s also the fundamental characteristic that makes an organization distinct, binds a community together, and showcases its values. As such, culture is what ultimately enables the attraction and retention of talent, as well as clients.

Though it sometimes seems otherwise, the financial crisis wasn’t that long ago. Baby-boomer clients were 44 to 62 years old in 2008; they’re 55 to 73 years old today. And they still make up the majority of most advisors’ clients and assets. But even though the demographics and net worth of your client base may be similar, the market gyrations in late 2018—and more recently with renewed trade tensions between the U.S. and China—don’t seem to have resulted in the same level of anxiety among your customers as they did back then.

I’ve spoken with countless advisors about their retiring clients. What I’ve learned is that even when a client is secure financially, that doesn’t always equal happiness in retirement. As a society, we haven’t developed good strategies to help people adjust from the work-based life they led for decades to something else.

Many advisors often struggle with determining when to hire a new employee, and it can be difficult to decide if the costs—whether it be money or time—are worth it. Is it better to be proactive and add someone to the team ahead of time to avoid disaster, or to save money and wait to see if existing employees can handle the additional work?

In a sign of changing times for our industry, the oldest baby boomers reached age 70 in 2016. What does this mean for financial advisors? Over the next decade and beyond, it’s likely that you’ll find yourself attending to the needs of grieving survivors, as well as responding to the death of clients. Do you have a plan for how your firm will deal with this new reality?