Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio News.
Speaker 2: You're listening to Bloomberg BusinessWeek with Krol mess Here and
Speaker 2: Tim Steneveek on Bloomberg Radio.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: April is Autism Awareness Month. The bioneurological developmental disability now
Speaker 4: affects one in thirty six children. This according to the
Speaker 4: National Autism Association, which says that even though it's the
Speaker 4: fastest growing developmental disorder, it's also the most underfunded.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's pretty incredible, and we've got a great voice
Speaker 1: on this and we're lucky to reach out to him again.
Speaker 4: Charlie Massimo is a financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Group
Speaker 4: who specializes in planning for families affected by autism. He's
Speaker 4: also the founder of Autism Communities, which provides independent living
Speaker 4: opportunities for young adults with autism. Charlie joins us from Bluepoint,
Speaker 4: New York. Charlie, good to have you back with us.
Speaker 4: How are you.
Speaker 2: It's my pleasure. I appreciate you bringing me back, especially
Speaker 2: this month.
Speaker 4: Yeah, we love it when you join us. Hey, I
Speaker 4: want to talk a little bit big picture here about
Speaker 4: what it means to be planning everybody is affected by autism.
Speaker 4: I mean like, like I said, one in thirty six
Speaker 4: people are are affected by this, right now, how does
Speaker 4: it change the financial planning situation for someone?
Speaker 2: Oh, drastically. I think we're to have to understand, you,
Speaker 2: I raised two boys with autism, and just the other
Speaker 2: day I'm at a client. She's eighty six and she's
Speaker 2: still raising her sixty seven year old son with autism.
Speaker 2: This is life long.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So for many of us, we have our children, they grow,
Speaker 2: they take care of themselves, they're out and doing their
Speaker 2: own thing, earning their own living. Not so when you're
Speaker 2: raising a child with autism. So not only do you
Speaker 2: have to figure out how do I care for my
Speaker 2: child with autism? And that costs, you know, the estimate
Speaker 2: is about two and a half million dollars over the
Speaker 2: life of a child with autism, and how do I
Speaker 2: then fund my own retirement? So it's significant challenge for
Speaker 2: these families. Charlie.
Speaker 1: One of the things that I appreciate when you come on,
Speaker 1: I think our whole audience does, is that you do
Speaker 1: give some insight into the world of autism and understand
Speaker 1: it from a level that most do not. Having said
Speaker 1: that autism is a spectrum, right, and I do always
Speaker 1: wonder how many individuals are living with autism that are
Speaker 1: able to support themselves in some way or live on
Speaker 1: their own. How many or not do we do you
Speaker 1: have do we have some understanding of that breakdown?
Speaker 2: Well, it's a it's a great point, Carol, And you
Speaker 2: know the thing about autism, sometimes you don't know what
Speaker 2: the capabilities of your son or daughter may be till
Speaker 2: later on. But to put in somewhat perspective, sixty eight
Speaker 2: percent of the population of autism are unemployed for their
Speaker 2: entire life. Sixty eight percent, So that's that's that's a
Speaker 2: pretty large number. And some of it is not due
Speaker 2: to their inability to work. It's just employees don't really
Speaker 2: understand the value or how to relate to them so
Speaker 2: they can be a valuable part of their of their
Speaker 2: thermal company. But the reality of sixty eight percent are
Speaker 2: not earning any money and rely solely on some governmental
Speaker 2: supports and whatever the family can can supplement those needs with.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 4: As you mentioned and Charlie, the cost of caring for
Speaker 4: a child with autism ranges in the millions of dollars,
Speaker 4: can reach the millions of dollars over the lifetime of
Speaker 4: the child. If people don't necessarily have the financial means
Speaker 4: to do this, what are their options?
Speaker 2: Yeah, great point. Again, their options are to understand the
Speaker 2: resources available. Fortunately, through Medicaid there is a lot of
Speaker 2: federal funding. It takes some legwork, it takes some research,
Speaker 2: but there is a lot of money available through medicaid
Speaker 2: through Social Security. So the first thing I ask a
Speaker 2: family or tele a family, have you researched all the
Speaker 2: governmental entitlements that are available for your son or daughter?
Speaker 2: Because your point is well taken. The vast majority of
Speaker 2: population you can't afford two and a half million to
Speaker 2: raise their son a daughter autism, then figure out how
Speaker 2: to plan for their own retirement. So it's really the
Speaker 2: entitlements are very very important.
Speaker 1: In terms of I'm curious about kind of the working
Speaker 1: component too, to like you said that, there's a lot
Speaker 1: of folks that maybe there are employers out there that
Speaker 1: right could certainly employ individuals with autism. How do we
Speaker 1: kind of figure that one out, that component, that piece.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's been that's been a challenge for a long time.
Speaker 2: And there are companies like Microsoft, there are companies like
Speaker 2: Panera and others that have found a way by and
Speaker 2: this is where AI is going to become a big
Speaker 2: part for this population because through AI programs, they're learning
Speaker 2: how to communicate with the autism population in the in
Speaker 2: the workforce. And I'm really excited about that component. But
Speaker 2: it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot
Speaker 2: of training to support these young men and women with
Speaker 2: autism and how to fit them in. But I will
Speaker 2: tell you this. You talk to these firms that have
Speaker 2: employed those on the spectrum and they all tell you
Speaker 2: they have a valuable part of the workforce and they're
Speaker 2: incredibly product when they learn how to communicate and learn
Speaker 2: how to assimilate them into their company.
Speaker 4: And Charlie, one thing I was really surprised to find
Speaker 4: when I was doing research for this is that according
Speaker 4: to the National Autism Association, it's still significantly underfunded, even
Speaker 4: though it's increasingly common in this day and age. How
Speaker 4: do you explain that?
Speaker 2: You know, Tim, right, if you think look at the
Speaker 2: projections next year, it's projected that autism will cost this
Speaker 2: country four hundred and sixty one billion dollars. That's about
Speaker 2: what two percent or so of the GDP, And you're right,
Speaker 2: it is probably one of the areas that the government
Speaker 2: is not looking at I mean, there's only so many
Speaker 2: places you can pull from. And now what's happening is
Speaker 2: they're putting the burden back on the families and they're saying, hey,
Speaker 2: we'll give you the dollars, but you need to manage
Speaker 2: these dollars yourself. And that creates a whole nother challenge
Speaker 2: in itself. But you're right, the government is not looking
Speaker 2: at this strong enough.
Speaker 4: Certainly, in your experience, since this, since this started to
Speaker 4: be part of your life, has has awareness increased, has
Speaker 4: funding increased, has a government understanding increased or has it
Speaker 4: gone the other way?
Speaker 2: No? No, certainly awareness has increased. When my boys would
Speaker 2: diagnose in two thousand and one, I never even heard
Speaker 2: of autism. But now I can't walk. I can have
Speaker 2: a conversation with one person and bring up autism. They say, oh,
Speaker 2: I know somebody with autism. So awareness is significantly increased.
Speaker 2: In diagnosis has significantly increased. So those things are great,
Speaker 2: are happening, But again there are parts. The financial aspect
Speaker 2: is just not being addressed into strong enough fashion, and
Speaker 2: it has to be or this is going to become
Speaker 2: an epidemic for the country that's going to get ahead
Speaker 2: of itself or get too far ahead of itself that
Speaker 2: we're never going to be able to figure it out.
Speaker 1: Help me understand the financial aspect. Is it the overall
Speaker 1: cost that you find that's going that we've got to
Speaker 1: kind of figure out, because you do seem to say
Speaker 1: that there's money provided for individuals, but people it's on
Speaker 1: the owner, you know, then for them to kind of
Speaker 1: figure out how to do it all. I mean, if
Speaker 1: you could change a couple of things overnight, Charlie, what
Speaker 1: would you.
Speaker 2: Do if I could change I make more of the beyond.
Speaker 1: No kids having to deal with autism, I'm assuming would
Speaker 1: be number one.
Speaker 2: But yeah, of course, but let's unfortunately that's not going
Speaker 2: to it's not going to happen. But I think I would.
Speaker 2: I would have more of these therapies because what happens
Speaker 2: is once you get to the age of twenty one
Speaker 2: and over twenty one, a lot of the services that
Speaker 2: were covered prior to twenty one are no longer covered, right,
Speaker 2: So I'd like to see a lot of these health
Speaker 2: insurance companies realize that there's these therapies, a lifelong speech
Speaker 2: ot PT, these are lifelong therapies that have to be
Speaker 2: part of this of these childs or these adults lives
Speaker 2: and it's just not covered or a lot of it
Speaker 2: is not covered. So the first thing I would do
Speaker 2: is look at the healthcare system say we got to
Speaker 2: address this in a much more aggressive manner. Then the
Speaker 2: second part I would really figure out with HUT, how
Speaker 2: do we make affordable housing available because we can't have
Speaker 2: these young men and women living with their families until
Speaker 2: their families die, un till their parents die. But depending
Speaker 2: on where you live in this country, it's just unaffordable
Speaker 2: for this to happen. So I will look at HUT
Speaker 2: to create better programs to make housing affordable for those
Speaker 2: with intellectual disability.
Speaker 4: Well that's that's where I want to end. With your
Speaker 4: work that you've been doing at Autism Communities. Can you
Speaker 4: just talk a little bit about what you created? Wow,
Speaker 4: just about a decade ago at this point, Charlie.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's not just thoughts as communities, it's so many
Speaker 2: other associations that are we've been part of. But I
Speaker 2: think the goal is working with developers and taking these
Speaker 2: affordable units within these developments that they're building and then
Speaker 2: setting them aside for those with intellectual disability. So instead
Speaker 2: of paying market rate, we've gone to the developers to say,
Speaker 2: can we reserve a couple of your units and put
Speaker 2: them for low income housing? And it certainly helps or
Speaker 2: goes toward making it more affordable. So we're looking to
Speaker 2: work with more developers to create more of these housing
Speaker 2: or affordable housing units for those on the spectrum.
Speaker 1: Yeah, makes a lot of sense, all right, Charlie, So
Speaker 1: good to check in with you. Be well, Charlie Massimo,
Speaker 1: financial advisor at Wealth Enhancement Enhancement Group excuse me, as
Speaker 1: we said, specializing and planning for families affected by autism.
Speaker 1: He's also the founder of Autism Communities, joining us there
Speaker 1: from Bluepoint, New York.
Speaker 3: Well.
Speaker 4: The contribution of Latinos to the US economy rose to
Speaker 4: three point two trillion dollars in twenty twenty one. It
Speaker 4: would rank fifth in the world if the group were
Speaker 4: an independent country, just behind Germany and head of the
Speaker 4: UK and India. This according to report release last fall,
Speaker 4: So Carol compared with the world's biggest economies, US Latino
Speaker 4: GDP was the third fastest growing economy during the decade
Speaker 4: ending in twenty twenty one, behind China and India. This,
Speaker 4: I should note all from a Bloomberg story back in September.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I feel like Bloomberg does a lot of reporting
Speaker 1: about this, about the importance of following the Latin community,
Speaker 1: certainly here in the United States as consumers, as brands,
Speaker 1: just everything politics.
Speaker 4: I was going to say, a political block too.
Speaker 1: Very very important members of the group that face pay, inequality, stereotyping,
Speaker 1: tim and also underrepresentation though still in the workplace.
Speaker 4: Coke Wall is a nonprofit think tank that is working
Speaker 4: to change that. The group, in its own words, has
Speaker 4: a mission to quote address bias and uncovered barriers to
Speaker 4: advancement for underrepresented populations in the workplace. Leneia Irvin is
Speaker 4: the CEO of Coke Wall. She joins us from New
Speaker 4: York City. Lenaa, how are you.
Speaker 3: Well. It's great to see you all. I'm delighted to
Speaker 3: be here and well, thank you.
Speaker 4: So the big question that I think I have is
Speaker 4: how can this be addressed? How can you address bias
Speaker 4: and uncovered barriers to advancement specifically for this group?
Speaker 3: Right? You know, I think I mean you set it up.
Speaker 3: You know in your earlier statements, there's tremendous economic opportunity here,
Speaker 3: and I think that uh, you know, denying not only
Speaker 3: the strength of the consumer, uh, the brands, but also
Speaker 3: the entrepreneur base that is found within this cohort is
Speaker 3: is is a huge risk I think for uh, the
Speaker 3: US economy. And I think what we can what we
Speaker 3: see in the work environment is that there's an opportunity
Speaker 3: to invite Hispanic and Latino professionals into the work environment
Speaker 3: to deliver their best, best selves, their most brilliant contributions
Speaker 3: to business without requiring them to perhaps hide or basically, uh,
Speaker 3: how do you say, these burdens to cover up their heritage,
Speaker 3: their their backgrounds in order to advance in the work environment.
Speaker 1: And that's what we're seeing, is there is there something
Speaker 1: different from you know, we also we often talk about
Speaker 1: this that individuals in the workforce, we embrace diversity, and
Speaker 1: yet there's still a lot of individual who don't feel
Speaker 1: like they can embrace their diversity if you will, or
Speaker 1: or their differences when it comes Is it something different
Speaker 1: for the for the Latino community other than if it
Speaker 1: was Black Americans or LGBTQ. Just curious.
Speaker 3: I mean, again, there's there's obviously nuanced and studying this
Speaker 3: this group, but yes, it is. It is different. There's
Speaker 3: tremendous intense othering around things such as language and accent,
Speaker 3: and so there's there's a different pressure to cover with
Speaker 3: this group. Uh. You know, there's discouragement from speaking one's
Speaker 3: language in the in the in the workforce, we see
Speaker 3: actually barriers to advancement, store rates of advancement, uh, and
Speaker 3: pay inequities for those who speak Spanish is the first language,
Speaker 3: for example, versus those who speak English as a first language.
Speaker 3: And we do think that there's opportunity here, you know,
Speaker 3: to to resolve this because ultimately, look, if you have
Speaker 3: an individual who speaks Mandarin or speaks French or speak
Speaker 3: Spanish in the work environment, that actually is valuable when
Speaker 3: you think about hopping on a flight to a client
Speaker 3: and or ensuring messaging I mean to your user.
Speaker 4: There's a reason why many colleges have language requirements, right,
Speaker 4: I mean, that's an incredible asset to be able to
Speaker 4: speak multiple languages.
Speaker 1: No, it's a really good point, right, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: an asset.
Speaker 3: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: Well. Well, so what do you think the business environment
Speaker 1: continues to get wrong or what could they do better
Speaker 1: specifically in terms of programs or initiatives.
Speaker 3: Well, one thing I will say before I hop into that,
Speaker 3: because I think it's really important women are really bearing
Speaker 3: the brunt. Here. We find that Hispanic and Latino women,
Speaker 3: in addition to caregiving burdens and things of that, make
Speaker 3: sure they're twice as likely to feel that the way
Speaker 3: that they're compensated right, their pay does not sufficiently allow
Speaker 3: them to support their dependents. And we're talking white collar
Speaker 3: professionals here, right, this is what we study. They're far
Speaker 3: more likely to fill career career stall than their male
Speaker 3: counterparts within the Hispanic and Latino community. You know where
Speaker 3: there are where there is board representation, five percent of
Speaker 3: corporate boards Fortune five hundred the seats are held by
Speaker 3: Hispanic and Latino professionals, but only one percent of those
Speaker 3: are women. And so we're really seeing disparities in this
Speaker 3: particular study in the data as it relates to Hispanic
Speaker 3: and Latino women. That should not go without being called out.
Speaker 3: But I would say there are a few things that
Speaker 3: companies can do very quickly. It's along the engage, invest
Speaker 3: and then ultimately disrupt some structural barriers. Engage means invite
Speaker 3: the employee into the conversation. Far too often we see
Speaker 3: and we hear from leaders and professionals and they say,
Speaker 3: you know what, leaders just often fail to ask the basics,
Speaker 3: what are the obstacles you're facing in the workplace, right,
Speaker 3: and how can I help you to overcome them? Right?
Speaker 3: So in some cases, it makes it a lot easier
Speaker 3: to get at what the most pressing barriers are by
Speaker 3: just asking the community. And then from an investment standpoint,
Speaker 3: we think it's extraor really important to not only invest
Speaker 3: in recruitment but also development, right, strengthening your sponsorship offerings,
Speaker 3: looking at how you can deepen skill sets and on
Speaker 3: the job experiences within your teams so that you can
Speaker 3: cultivate that pipeline for leadership and hopefully, you know, we
Speaker 3: see a pipeline long term that better reflects the future workforce,
Speaker 3: because this is nearly twenty percent of the US population
Speaker 3: and we do know, you know, it's inevitable demographically that
Speaker 3: you know, this will be a part of our leadership
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 4: Lenee, I feel like we can't have this conversation right
Speaker 4: now without talking about the charged political environment that we
Speaker 4: find ourselves in. And I'm wondering how right now that
Speaker 4: if you found anything in the research that Cokewald did
Speaker 4: in terms of the way that this is now such
Speaker 4: a charge topic here in the US, given that immigration
Speaker 4: is that is in focus, given that what's happening in
Speaker 4: the border is in focus, giving that migrants being bussed
Speaker 4: into different cities around the country is in focus. Talk
Speaker 4: a little bit about that.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, it showed up in our data, showed up in
Speaker 3: the qualitative and the stories that so many professionals shared.
Speaker 3: One in five of our respondents, so twenty one percent
Speaker 3: essentially have had and have on a regular basis colleagues,
Speaker 3: you know, share kind of negative things about, you know,
Speaker 3: immigrants and immigration. And again, these things don't typically come
Speaker 3: up in one's daily workplace, but they're twice as likely
Speaker 3: to have colleagues, you know, kind of repeat to this
Speaker 3: rhetoric and and make comments around undocumented people. And it's
Speaker 3: a it's a real alienating experience for them, regardless, immigration
Speaker 3: is a part of their story in some cases their
Speaker 3: second generation or third generation Hispanic and Latinos, and you know,
Speaker 3: it is something that especially an election year, it's something
Speaker 3: that is they're acutely aware of, right because they know
Speaker 3: that the rhetoric is going to continue to bubble up
Speaker 3: in the coming quarters.
Speaker 4: Really appreciate you joining us. That's Lena Urban, CEO of
Speaker 4: Cooke wal