Special needs clients require special care

Alexandria Nadworny decided to focus on special needs financial planning because it hits close to home. She believes planning for a loved one with special needs is "truly planning for two generations."

For instance, her brother James Nadworny has Down Syndrome, which the partner and wealth advisor at Affinia Financial Group, part of Sequoia, admits she was shocked there weren’t many financial planners who focus on special needs in the country.

“There really weren't many people talking about it,” admits Nadworny, who's based out of Massachusetts. “You don't see it in the TV shows that you see now, who are focused on individuals with autism or are neuro diverse. [My dad didn’t] really know what to do and how to plan for my brother with special needs.”

When her father John Nadworny, who's also a principal at the firm, met his business partner, Cynthia Haddad, whose brother has developmental disabilities, they decided to join forces and pursue the special needs planning venture together.

Nadworny explains that her father and his partner were learning for themselves as they were going along, helping other families and providing them with the planning support. “What is the vision for the future? How do we position the financial assets and then work with attorneys for the special needs trust? [But also] building relationships, building a network because specialties planning is different. It’s really about the relationships.”

Since joining forces, Nadworny Sr. and his partner wrote a book together for prospective specialty needs advisors “The Special Needs Planning Guide” in 2007. Nadworny is quick to point out that despite the lack of advisors or even awareness in the space, there’s been several resources that’s come to fruition.

Ms. Nadworny joined the firm 11 years ago and hasn’t looked back since.

“I naturally gravitated towards this space,” she says. I have so much to share with my life experiences. Money is important, but it's how do you use that money to provide a great life for the parents and siblings, if there are some, as well as the individual with special needs.

“When you think about the families that you work with, the succession plan for clients is even more important because the assets need to survive for their child as well, it's just their retirement. We play an integral part of our clients’ lives.”

After starting as an RIA in 2019, the Nadwornys teamed up with Sequoia last fall to provide “true sucession”. Nadworny remarked even though they were doing really well as a firm, there came a time where they needed the additional infrastructure and wanted to enrich more Americans' lives.

Of course, there are some challenges when it comes to dealing with clients who need a little extra care. For instance, identifying the relatives or clients who can step into the key roles that the parents are currently playing for the child.

“Depending on the client and their financial resources, we have spent a lot of time meeting with different professionals and agencies to help continue the great life that the parents have worked so hard to create for their loved ones. And money can't always solve it; it's the relationships that we build.”

Currently, they’re training other advisors across the Sequoia platform on special needs planning. Not only with existing clients at Sequoia, but they’re also hard at work getting information out to families that need the information.

“When you have a loved one with special needs, there are certain considerations, no matter the wealth,” she says. “Now we're able to create resources to folks that might not need other resources that we have as wealth managers, but we can give them the tools to help them with future planning, as well as being a key member of the families that we work with on an ongoing basis.”

Name: Alexandria Nadworny
Position: Partner and wealth advisor
Company: Affinia Financial Group, part of Sequoia Financial Group
Founded: 2019
AUM: ~$18 billion