Financial Gerontology - Compare and Contrast

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The area of Financial Gerontology, financial planning for the elderly generation, is an area that encompasses many legal and ethical issues. Professional duties, legal duties, and duties to the client, may all call for different routes to be taken in certain situations that may arise. Two articles that I have read that have been written on these issues are "Legal and Ethical Issues in Financial Gerontology," by Laura Addington, Sandra Reynolds, and Ronald Duska; and "Ethical Long-Term Care Planning: Applying the Society's Code," written by Keith Moeller, and David Christopherson.

The main issue that is being brought up in both articles is how to apply an ethical code to situations that frequently arise in the area of financial planning for the elderly. These articles are intended for and audience of financial planning professionals, and the authors of both articles have succeeded in writing appropriately for this audience. Professional advice and information is expressed quite clearly, and seems useful for somebody in this career. All authors have seemed to use their own personal research and work experience as sources for the articles' information, although the professional code of ethics is cited quite frequently in both works. Stylistic differences do not predominantly exist in these articles, both being structured into sections of related topics (ie. "Legal Issues," "Confidentiality."..etc).

The most noticeable difference in the two articles is the authors' points of view. Although both articles reason towards decision making that encompasses the best wishes of the clients, Moeller and Christopherson's article sways more to the side of taking care of the best interests of the country above the individual's. Moeller and Christopherson state that "by 2012, out nation's 77 million boomers will be retiring in significant numbers, and public financing problems will intensify."(Moeller) This noting of the public situation is quite predominant throughout the article. In "Legal and Ethical Issues in Financial Gerontology," the authors look out for individual interest of the elderly client a lot more. The articles talk of "planner's potential abuse of the elder client[s],...disclosure issues,"(Addington) and mental and physical capacity of the clients.

In summation, both articles are similar in issue, style, and credentials of the authors. The important differences come with how to interpret the code of ethics in making your professional decisions, to make sure that your are fulfilling both your client's and your organization's wishes staying within the scope of legal practice.

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