Reports that aging Americans may not be able to make sound financial decisions because of declining cognitive skills may be overstated, said Laura Carstensen, professor of psychology and head of Stanford University’s Center on Longevity.
“We may be jumping the gun,” Carstensen said in an interview following her keynote speech this month at NAPFA’s spring conference in Las Vegas. “While there is cognitive decline with normal aging, if we pull out people with brain disease, there’s not enough of a decline for us to worry about older peoples’ ability to make financial decisions.”
