Ways I Can Help
After four decades helping organizations navigate complex transformations, and then experiencing my own family's aging transition, I realized something profound: families facing these life-changing decisions deserve the same strategic frameworks and guidance that companies receive during major changes.
I'm not building a consulting practice. I'm simply offering to share what I've learned—both professionally and personally—with those who might find it helpful.
My Approach: This isn't about selling services. It's about bringing clarity, frameworks, and strategic thinking to decisions that matter deeply. Whether you're an individual navigating your parent's transition, a professional advisor seeking deeper tools for your clients, or an organization wanting to support aging populations better—I'm here to help you think more clearly about complex problems.
Important to understand: I don't coordinate services, manage care, or handle logistics. I help you develop the strategic frameworks and decision-making tools so you can lead this transition with confidence.
You'll still need doctors, lawyers, financial advisors, fiduciaries, and possibly care managers. What I provide is the thinking framework that helps you make better use of all of them.
For Families & Individuals
Providing a steady hand during life’s most personal transitions.
Thought Partnership for Major Decisions
Sometimes you don't need a consultant—you need someone who understands both change and aging transitions to help you think through a decision you're facing.
I can sit with you (in person or virtually) and help you:
Organize your thinking when facing a parent's declining health or your own aging planning
Identify the real decision you're making (often different from the apparent one)
Map stakeholder perspectives when family members disagree
Develop a decision framework that honors both practical and emotional dimensions
Create a transition roadmap that manages change rather than reacts to crisis
Decision Support & Clarity Sessions
If you are feeling overwhelmed by the "8 Key Decision Domains" (from home safety to financial clarity), we can sit down together to prioritize your needs, explore your options objectively, and build a manageable 360-degree action plan.
Family Meeting Facilitation: Navigating aging often involves difficult conversations between siblings or generations. I act as a neutral third party to help facilitate these discussions, ensuring every voice is heard and the focus remains on the well-being and wishes of the senior.
Environment & "Energy Within" Reviews: Using my background as a Certified Aging in Place Specialist (CAPS), I can help you look at your home and garden or care setting not just for safety, but for "energy alignment"—creating a space that supports cognitive, physical, and spiritual vitality.
Narrative & Legacy Projects: I can help individuals capture key messages, learnings or create "conversation-starter" narratives that make future planning feel like a shared journey rather than a clinical requirement.
Framework Development & Custom Tools
I can help you create customized assessment tools, decision matrices, or planning frameworks tailored to your specific situation. These tools bring structure to otherwise overwhelming complexity.
For Professional Advisers
If you work with aging clients—as a fiduciary, elder law attorney, financial planner, care manager, accountant, or other professional advisor—you already know that technical expertise alone doesn't always serve your clients' deepest needs. The real challenge is often helping clients navigate the human complexity: family dynamics, resistance to change, competing values, identity transformation.
Enhancing the "Human Element" of your professional practice.
Complex Case Navigation: For legal or financial professionals, I provide the "social and emotional scaffolding" for your clients. While you handle the estate or the trust, I help the family navigate the lifestyle transitions and care decisions that often complicate the professional process.
Client Communication Strategies: I help professional firms develop more empathetic, senior-centered communication models. By integrating narrative-based approaches, you can help your clients feel more seen and valued, leading to deeper trust and smoother planning.
Aging-in-Place Consultation: I provide specialized insights for fiduciaries and executors who are managing properties, ensuring that modifications or transitions are grounded in both safety research and human-centered design.
Educational Workshops:
I can present to professional groups on topics like:
Aging as Organizational Change: New Frameworks for Client Work
Family Systems Under Transformation
Decision Architecture for High-Stakes Planning
Stakeholder Alignment in Multi-Generational Planning
The Psychology of Aging Transitions
For Organizations & Communities
Designing environments and cultures where aging is celebrated.
For organizations serving aging populations—healthcare systems, senior living communities, nonprofit organizations, or financial services firms—I can help you:
Program Design & Development
Design better client engagement processes that honor complexity
Develop assessment frameworks that go beyond checklists
Create decision support tools for your clients or members
Build organizational change capabilities within your team
Integrate systems thinking into your service deliver
Workshops & "Guided Conversations": I am available to speak to community groups or organizations on topics such as The Power of Story in Aging, Designing for Vitality, and Navigating the Complexity of Late-Life Decisions.
Program Design for Senior Well-being: For organizations looking to improve their senior services, I offer guidance on integrating human-centered design and narrative tools into their existing frameworks to reduce "friction" and increase engagement.
Staff Development & Training
I can work with your team to develop their capacity to support clients facing aging transitions through frameworks from organizational psychology, change management, and systems thinking.
Strategic Advisory
For organizations rethinking how they serve aging populations, I can provide strategic guidance on program development, service design, or organizational transformation.
How We Might Work Together
Every situation is different, so how we work together should fit your actual needs. Here are some ways people have engaged with me:
Single Conversation: Sometimes one thoughtful discussion is enough to gain clarity
Short Series: 3-5 sessions to work through a specific decision or develop a framework
Ongoing Partnership: Regular check-ins as situations evolve
Workshop or Presentation: One-time educational event for a professional group
Project Work: Developing custom frameworks, tools, or programs
The format matters less than whether the work helps you think more clearly about what you're facing.
What This Is Not
I want to be clear about what I don't do:
I'm not a licensed professional providing medical, legal, financial, or clinical advice
I don't manage ongoing care or coordinate services
I don't sell products or receive referral fees
I don't promise easy answers to complex human situations
What I do offer is a way to think more clearly, plan more strategically, and navigate complex transitions with greater confidence—drawing on frameworks from organizational psychology, change management, and systems thinking that have been tested across thousands of business transformations.
Let's Talk
If you're facing an aging transition—for yourself, a parent, a client, or the people your organization serves—and you think a conversation might help, I'd be glad to speak with you.
Reach me at:
bernardjputz @ silverbeacon.net
650-544-7121
Initial conversations are complimentary—I'm happy to explore whether working together makes sense for your situation.
Important Note: The support I provide is educational and strategic in nature, helping you organize your thinking and develop frameworks for decision-making. I do not provide medical, legal, financial, tax, or clinical advice. For specific guidance tailored to your circumstances, please consult appropriate licensed professionals: physicians or healthcare providers for medical decisions, elder law attorneys for legal matters, certified financial planners for financial planning, CPAs for tax issues, and geriatric care managers or social workers for caregiving needs.