Why RBC Wealth Management has partnered with Cleveland Clinic

Advisors are already experts in making a referral. Tax issues, they’ve got a list of quality CPAs. Estate planning issues, there’s a rolodex of lawyers. Insurance questions, here are seven experts who can go deep on some very specific product options. A medical referral, though, has often been a bridge too far.

No longer, though, at least for advisors with RBC Wealth Management. The bank’s wealth management arm recently announced a new partnership with Cleveland Clinic, a global non-profit with hospitals and clinics all over the world, including a location in midtown Toronto. While the connection between financial advice and medical services may appear tenuous on the surface, Leanne Kaufman emphasizes the intimate connection between health and wealth. Kaufman is President & CEO of RBC Royal Trust, she outlined the reasoning behind this partnership and what it will enable RBC advisors to do now.

“Canadians are living longer and we have been focused on developing resources that help bring a healthy aging and longevity lens to the overall conversation,” Kaufman says. “So the opportunity to partner and help clients through the Cleveland Clinic connections really is a natural extension of that. They can bring services and resources that go along with what we’ve been talking about.”

Tangibly, RBC Wealth Management clients will be eligible for a comprehensive medical assessment by Cleveland Clinic. Kaufman describes that service as a “a fulsome physical plus plus.” The idea behind the check-up is a preventative tool that can help identify any health issues before they become significant.

Kaufman also highlights the importance of Cleveland Clinic’s research and steady publications, giving clients resources they can use to engage with their family doctors and other specialists. Clients will also be able to tap into Cleveland Clinic’s global networks for second opinions or services they might not be able to access otherwise. Kaufman notes that the partnership will be particularly helpful for RBC’s snowbird clients, given Cleveland Clinic’s significant presence in the US.

The core idea is prevention and proactive care. As clients get older the likelihood that they will require more healthcare increases. Prevention and proactivity can help manage those odds. In doing so, clients can live more financially healthy lives too. Kaufman explains that the financial implications of medical care are less often talked about. Even procedures or interventions covered by a provincial health plan can have serious implications for an individual’s ability to earn and save. Later in life, costs can grow outside of areas covered by a health plan as some clients come to require long-term care.

“All of these inexorably link health and wealth,” Kaufman says. “Because there are personal goals people will have about how they age, where they age, what they want their caregiving to look like and how they’re going to pay for that. Helping clients stay healthy and independent for longer will also help with their financial goals.”

Kaufman stresses that this will not make advisors into primary care providers. They will not be expected to triage clients, diagnose conditions, or take on new medical training. Rather, she notes, that in their conversation with clients advisors may recognize that a client would benefit from an introduction to professionals at the Cleveland Clinic. The advisor then makes the introduction, without asking for medical information, and the clinic takes it from there.

Kaufman believes the whole advisory business can learn from this partnership. As the industry moves further and further down the path of ‘holistic financial advice,’ the overlaps with health become larger. When someone’s goal is to spend quality time with their grandchildren, finance is only one side of accomplishing that goal. Quality time means they are physically healthy enough to get up and play or cognitively healthy enough to have a meaningful chat. If an advisor can make an introduction that helps achieve that goal, then they may be getting closer to the idea of holistic advice.

“RBC wants to be a leader in this space, we see this as a differentiator for the services we provide,” Kaufman says. “But for the broader industry, I think it goes back to paying attention to an aging demographic, even if these services are available to anyone at any age. But aging is where our focus began. I think it’s important to focus on this demographic and think at some level about the implications of aging for our clients.”