Speaker 1: You're listening to Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Quick Takes Tim Stinovic on Bloomberg Radio. Today is
Speaker 1: the beginning of Autism Awareness Month. According to the CDC,
Speaker 1: Autism effects and estimated one in forty four children in
Speaker 1: the US today, and as we know, Tim impacts many
Speaker 1: more if you take into account those families with a
Speaker 1: member who has autism. Charlie Massimo is senior vice president
Speaker 1: and financial advisor with the Wealth Enhancement Group of Voice
Speaker 1: that our listeners know well. He also specializes in planning
Speaker 1: for families that are impacted by autism. Charlie, it's good
Speaker 1: to talk to you again. How are you. I'm great,
Speaker 1: Thanks for having me to get back. Yeah, thanks for
Speaker 1: joining us on this. It's a really important one. And
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk a little bit about um
Speaker 1: the misconceptions here because I think, as you rightly point
Speaker 1: out uh In in your materials that you you sent
Speaker 1: our producer Paul Brennan, uh A lot of focus around
Speaker 1: autism has really been about kids, as Carol mentioned, but
Speaker 1: this isn't something that that stops with childhood. And when
Speaker 1: we think about autism, we also have to think about
Speaker 1: adults who are affected by it. Yeah, you know, as
Speaker 1: a parent of two boys with autism, what I found
Speaker 1: out is, you know, when they're when they're in school,
Speaker 1: services were great. Once they age out eighteen or twenty one,
Speaker 1: services kind of fall off a cliff and the onus
Speaker 1: comes back on the family to care for them on
Speaker 1: a daily basis. Not only not only day to day,
Speaker 1: but the financial impact that that has on a family
Speaker 1: for the rest of their life is pretty devastating for many,
Speaker 1: you know. And it's interesting. I was just checking um
Speaker 1: the CDC. I think was it just last year, Um,
Speaker 1: Charlie that they put out an estimate on the number
Speaker 1: of adults living with autism spectrum disorder in the US.
Speaker 1: And I think it was like five point four UM millions,
Speaker 1: about two and a quarter percent of the adults in
Speaker 1: the US. So it's it's a significant and sizeable population.
Speaker 1: Why is it that we haven't as a society you think,
Speaker 1: stepped up more in terms of our awareness and acknowledgement, uh,
Speaker 1: in doing more? Yeah, I think you bring up a
Speaker 1: great point. And while it's changed, it's certainly I call
Speaker 1: autism the the invisible population, because when you look at
Speaker 1: a child or adult with autism. Sometimes it's really difficult
Speaker 1: to tell if they actually have autism. And you look
Speaker 1: at them and say, well, they're fine, and the and
Speaker 1: the issue is they're really not fine. Um and and
Speaker 1: your point. You know, one in fifty one and forty
Speaker 1: five adults of autism, and it costs from from the
Speaker 1: age of eighteen for the rest of their life. The
Speaker 1: c d C also estimates it costs about one point
Speaker 1: eight million dollars per family to care for an adult
Speaker 1: with autism. And again, when you think of family that again,
Speaker 1: how much one point eight million dollars is that from
Speaker 1: child from childhood through adulthood. No, it's mostly most of
Speaker 1: that cost is eighteen and after a cost about anywhere
Speaker 1: from two point three to three point three million dollars
Speaker 1: to raise a child with autism throughout their life, and
Speaker 1: most of that again occurs after eighteen. And again the
Speaker 1: issue is while they're in school. A lot of those
Speaker 1: services that covet after school, a lot of after they graduate,
Speaker 1: A lot of those expenses, you know, fall back on
Speaker 1: the parents and those doctors and psychiatrists and programs that
Speaker 1: are really good in this country or in New York,
Speaker 1: A lot of them don't take insurances, it's mostly private
Speaker 1: pay so so again, when you think of a family,
Speaker 1: it's trying to prepare for their own retirement or plan
Speaker 1: for a typical child. To then put an autistic child
Speaker 1: on top of that, it becomes very difficult for these
Speaker 1: families to plan throughout their life. So Charlie, what is
Speaker 1: what do you do when you try to to specialize
Speaker 1: and help plan for families who are impacted by autism?
Speaker 1: How do you how do you help families financially cope
Speaker 1: with this? I think the first thing is we have
Speaker 1: to make them realize, you know what, this is life long.
Speaker 1: And again we have to make them realize what the
Speaker 1: true expense may be. And then I think we have
Speaker 1: to help them plan in buckets. Again, you can't. The
Speaker 1: biggest mistake I find families they commingle all their assets together,
Speaker 1: their their own retirement assets, their typical child's assets for college,
Speaker 1: and they plan in one bucket. And I think that's
Speaker 1: the biggest mistake. I think you have to really plan
Speaker 1: in buckets and carve out certain moneys and understand what
Speaker 1: those costs will be for for these families and for
Speaker 1: these young adults that again are going to need the
Speaker 1: financial supports throughout their entire life. What's a typical family
Speaker 1: that you that you work with in terms of figuring
Speaker 1: out a plan, because I also do wonder, you know, Charlie,
Speaker 1: that they're probably certain um families that have more means,
Speaker 1: you know, and they obviously can probably more easily do it.
Speaker 1: Then you're probably I would assume families that don't and
Speaker 1: maybe they get more assistance from public assisians, but then
Speaker 1: there's probably folks in the middle. Just got about forty seconds.
Speaker 1: What's what's the typical family? Like, Yeah, I think again
Speaker 1: again there is no really typical family when you deal
Speaker 1: with autism. But I think what you have to realize,
Speaker 1: and this is a misnomer, of adults with autism received
Speaker 1: no governmental supports for housing, and housing becomes is the
Speaker 1: big GETT issue because again most most adults live with
Speaker 1: their parents until their parents die, and that becomes a
Speaker 1: critical issue. So again housing is an issue that families
Speaker 1: have to realize they're not going to get much governmental
Speaker 1: supports for housing, so they really need to plan for
Speaker 1: the expenses of housing for for for the rest of
Speaker 1: their life, for their children. Charlie Massa, Most Senior Vice
Speaker 1: president and financial advisor of the Wealth Enhancement Group. Thank
Speaker 1: you so much for joining US. I know you're also
Speaker 1: a founder of autism Communities. I do want to note Carol,
Speaker 1: that US Autism Homes is having its first doggy Dash
Speaker 1: in Southampton on Saturday, April nine at ten am. You
Speaker 1: can go to u S Autism Homes dot org to
Speaker 1: learn more and to register.