With more than one-third of affluent Canadian parents concerned about their children’s financial prospects following university graduation, financial advisors should not be surprised if their high net-worth (HNW) clients are postponing their own retirement plans to support their kids.

“I have some clients that are deferring retirement until they make sure that their children are finished school. They’re planning to help them with the down payment [for a home],” says Denise Snow, a senior private wealth advisor with Bank of Montreal’s (BMO) private banking arm in Halifax. “They’re willing to compromise their own personal and financial objectives to [help] their children.”

The anxiety is evident through a study conducted by BMO Private Banking, which found that 36% of wealthy Canadians are worried whether their children can maintain their standard of living following graduation while 35% are concerned about their children’s ability to find a job after they complete their education.

Parents are already covering the majority of their children’s academic expenses with 69% of those costs being covered by their savings while their children’s savings covers 12%, according to the study, which was released on Thursday.

This is especially concerning as nobody knows what the future will bring. Disability or even death could make it much harder for parents to maintain that commitment to subsidizing their children’s lifestyle, says Snow, which is why insurance is a critical topic that advisors need to discuss with their HNW clients.

As part of the process, advisors can also help their HNW clients’ children develop their financial literacy skills, as Snow often does by meeting with the children of her affluent clients.

“Let’s look at cash flow, let’s give [these children] a budget, let’s get them to understand the debt associated with their education,” she explains. “[The parents] may pay for it but [the children] need to take responsibility for accumulating the debt and the expenses associated with education.”

BMO’s report also studied the impact that sending children to private school would have on affluent parents. Although only 16% of affluent Canadian parents have children attending private school from kindergarten to Grade 12, 77% of those parents say the expenses connected to this type of schooling has put some strain on their finances. Specifically, 23% of survey respondents report they have had to cut corners in other aspects of their lives because of tuition payments.

Thus, when affluent clients take on these types of financial commitments, you may have to help them adjust their lifestyles or face a reality check by analyzing their cash flow and offering options such as putting off retirement or living in a smaller home, Snow says.

“As advisors, what we can do is model what clients want and then talk about the risks and the reality of it all,” she says. “I can’t come to that conclusion, the clients have to, but we can demonstrate the risks.”

Pollara Strategic Insights conducted the study for BMO Private Banking between Oct. 15 and Oct. 28, 2014 through an online survey of 306 adult Canadians, who have at least $1 million in investible assets, not including employers’ pension plans, insurance products or their homes.