How advisors can tailor services to clients with ADHD

Forgetting bills, shame around spending and avoiding finances due to overwhelm are all common experiences for clients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Financial therapists and wealth advisors with ADHD say body doubling, taking personable approaches, and using visual aids and graphs can help neurodivergent clients stay on track. 

Processing Content

ADHD is a disorder that affects how the brain functions, causing challenges to attention, emotional regulation and impulsivity. Around 15 million, or 6%, of U.S. adults have a diagnosis, according to the CDC. 

The disorder can have a significant effect on behaviors around money. A 2021 study in the Journal of Neural Transmission found adults with ADHD have difficulty with financial judgment, especially when it comes to understanding information relevant for transactions. The study also found adults with ADHD had more difficulty communicating practical information related to their personal financial situations. 

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Also, adults with ADHD who were unmedicated were found to spend $18,200 annually on medical costs, due to more health care visits and higher expenses, according to 2023 research. It is estimated that adult ADHD’s economic burden is $122 billion in annual costs for adults from lost work productivity and income. 

How advisors can help ADHD-affected clients

Understanding what clients with ADHD are experiencing is the first step for financial advisors helping them, Christine Hargrove, director of the Love and Money Center at the University of Georgia, said. 

Dopamine-seeking habits lead to emotionally driven impulses that are detrimental to their bank accounts, Hargrove said. ADHD patients’ difficulty with sensing the passage of time leads to missed bills, late payments, double payments and difficulty seeing a big picture like retirement, she added. 

Otto Rivera, a wealth advisor with ADHD at Bedford, Massachusetts-based White Lighthouse Investment Management and host of the FPA knowledge circle, said he tries to make things as simple as possible when approaching those challenges. Because he also struggles with the disorder, he understands how easy it is for clients with ADHD to become overwhelmed with ambitious plans and information overload. 

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“I like going step-by-step and just dividing things up,” Rivera said. “If I talk about the whole plan or long-term vision, I do it in a way that’s, ‘We’re not going to do all this right now.’ Give those disclaimers first, so there’s no pressure, no overwhelm.”

Taking each step of a plan together and encouraging clients is where he’s found the most success, Rivera said, because it leads to client relief. 

“I try to be very personal — if they need to make a phone call for a rollover, or a transfer, or any process that can be intimidating,” Rivera said, “I’ll conference call with them, make sure that they’re being treated fairly, that you know that they’re not getting confused by anything, and just being there to support. Just having that physical presence, even virtually, helps a lot, just to focus and move on.”

Calming the nervous system

Mariah Hudler, a financial therapist at Sacramento-based Koru Financial Therapy, approaches ADHD as a nervous system regulation issue, especially the impulsivity factor. The two most common reactions to money she sees are either shutting down, or going into fight or flight, she said. 

“It essentially shows itself as beliefs like ‘I’m bad with money,’ or ‘I’m not meant to understand money,'” Hudler said.

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Being curious and learning your client’s story, beliefs, skills and lifelong imprints about money are all ways to help them, Hudler said. Then, planners can base their approaches on their clients’ individual experiences and validate their hurdles to help them feel emotionally safe. 

“Ask, ‘What has worked for you?’ ‘What has not worked for you? ‘What fears do you have?'” Hudler said. “It’s much more relational than it would be like, ‘Hey, I just really need to see your budget to be able to understand or to move forward.'”

Adjust your creativity to retain clients

Because of their difficulty managing money and subsequent shame about it, ADHD clients often feel that the financial services industry isn’t tailored to them, Hargrove said. They are hesitant to ask for help out of fear of being judged. 

READ MORE: How advisors can better serve neurodivergent clients

“They often think, ‘I can’t quite track what the planner is saying, that means they’re not interested in helping me,” Hargrove said. “But there’s a mismatch. When I talk with financial professionals, they deeply want to help, and they care very much.”

Hargrove said any wealth advisor interested in working with neurodivergent clients must make an intentional effort to destigmatize negative beliefs about money, so they can feel more comfortable reaching out for financial services. 

Because of executive function challenges, clients with ADHD have difficulty processing large swaths of abstract information like understanding what their ultimate savings goal is. 

Using creative approaches like visual aids, slideshows and graphs for financial information gives clients a clear mental picture of what they’re working toward, Hargrove said. 

“Instead of saying, ‘Do you want to live at the beach, or do you want to live in the city?,’ actually get out slide decks of a picture of the beach and a picture of the city,” Hargrove said. “Lay it all out and let them sift through.”

A little bit of creativity goes a long way, Hargrove said. 

“Every time I’ve consulted with financial professionals, and they have leaned into this angle, they discover that there is a very fast uptick in referrals,” she said.