Abstract
American culture often typifies older adults as financially secure, perhaps even affluent. Yet in reality, the recent economic crises, extended life expectancies, as well as less than desirable financial experiences accumulated throughout a lifetime have left many older adults financially vulnerable, including lacking assets, health care, and living at or below poverty. In this book, Morrow-Howell and Sherraden explore components of financial vulnerability, capability, well-being, and security for older adults from a life course perspective. The authors acknowledge that financial vulnerability, while often created early in life, is frequently not revealed until old age, where it is difficult to reverse. However, the authors note that all is not lost for the aged and financially vulnerable and discuss methods by which social workers can intervene to improve the financial status of older adults.
In the Introduction section, the authors spend sufficient time defining and acquainting readers to key concepts of financial vulnerability in later life, such as income and employment, savings and debt, and financial literacy and capability, such that even a novice on the topic might understand and integrate the ideas. The book then organizes the key concepts through three main sections: (1) Theory and Evidence of Life Course Impacts, (2) Vulnerable Populations, and (3) Policies and Innovations. Part 1 of the book, Theory and Evidence of Life Course Impacts, discusses life course impacts affecting older adults by grouping them into two categories: younger-old families (headed by someone aged 62–69 years) and older-old families (headed by someone 70 years or older) and compares evidence on outcomes for these two groups to middle-aged families (headed by someone aged 40–61 years) and young families (headed by someone under 40). By presenting and discussing information rooted in the empirical literature, the authors demonstrate how the distribution of income and wealth has changed over time among these categories of families. In addition, the authors present findings from an original cohort analysis study, comparing outcomes on financial variables among families headed by individuals born in 5-year cohorts, ranging from 1895 to 1990.
Each chapter in Part 2 of the book, Vulnerable Populations, focuses on the needs of a specific older population group, including African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, immigrants, and the disabled. The chapters present empirically based information to support the position that African Americans, Hispanics, Native Americans, immigrants, and the disabled have historically been denied access to wealth-generating mechanisms, asset ownership, health-producing resources, and financial literacy, and experience larger diminishment on their human capital investments than their nonmarginalized peers. The authors maintain that discrimination, stress, low socioeconomic position, and overrepresentation of these populations in low wage service sector jobs, restricted access to health care, pension plans, and the social security system, to name a few, will likely cause financial vulnerabilities to persist into the future.
Part 3 of the book, Policies and Innovations, concludes with strategies to develop financial capacities with older adults. This includes lifelong asset development as a primary strategy, as defined from a capability approach (financial literacy and financial inclusion). The authors also focus on identifying social programs and services available to older adults (access to and participation in available programs) and conclude with a section discussing, reviewing, and evaluating the policy implications of asset development with the aging population. This section culminates with a comprehensive, easy to understand table presenting asset-based programs and limit rules that may be prohibitive for older adults.
Overall, this is a well-organized, well-written book. While some of the concepts (particularly in Part 1) deal with dense financial topics and complex research methodologies, the authors provide the reader with clear and understandable definitions and linkages between ideas. This book is appropriate for a wide range of practitioners working on issues of older adulthood in micro, mezzo, and macro practice settings. By building an evidence-based conceptual framework to understand financial capability and vulnerability in later life, delving into the socioeconomic influences that cause vulnerabilities across the life span, and offering policy and practice implications, this book provides useful information to social workers in both their professional and personal lives.