Making Plans for Aging at Home
January 24, 2011
There used to be very few options for seniors who began to have trouble living on their own. In many cases the only options available were to move in with family or move into a nursing home. Now, however, that doesn’t have to be the case. With new advancements in technology, the help of family and local aging services, and with some planning and forethought, many seniors will be able to live at home and on their own for many years. Here are a few things to consider right now if you want to age at home in the future:
Support System- Do you have family or friends nearby who can check on you regularly and help when home maintenance issues crop up? Having someone close to you who can provide you with transportation is helpful as well, although many cities have public transportation services that may be an option.
Home Renovations- Is your home senior or handicap friendly? Are doorways and hallways wide enough to accommodate a wheelchair? Could you easily add ramps or lifts in place of stairs, if necessary? Do your kitchen and bathrooms facilitate easy maneuverability with as little reaching or bending over as possible?
Security or Medical Alert System- Having a security or medical alert system in place can provide immeasurable comfort to an elderly homeowner and his or her family. The technology for this is improving by leaps and bounds, and there are a number of different options available.
In-Home Care Services- The length of time you can remain in your home can be greatly increased if you have the financial means for (and access to) quality in-home care services. Someone to do basic cleaning and cooking, and help with daily activities, can prolong your time spent at home… but you have to plan for it.
Getting older shouldn’t mean you have to give up your home, your friends and neighbors, or your independence. For more information about what you may need to stay in your home as you age check out the website for the National Aging In Place Council.
Talking to Siblings About Caring for Mom and Dad
December 13, 2010
Many modern families have members living all over the country—and all over the world. Which means that the holiday season provides one of the only times to all get together in person, celebrate, catch up… and talk about caregiving strategies for aging parents. Unfortunately, this kind of conversation can be a difficult one, especially if not all siblings agree about mom or dad’s needs, or if one sibling feels that he or she shoulders an unfair amount of responsibility. In spite of the difficulty, having the conversation can be of the utmost importance.
In this article in Time Magazine author Francine Russo describes the consequences that can follow when lines of communication break down. “It wasn’t until my mom’s funeral, watching my dad and sister cling to each other and weep, that I got a hint of their long ordeal — and how badly I’d screwed up.”
Russo makes the point in her article that much of the tension and disagreement among siblings can come from inaccurate or conflicting information. “Friction often stems from parents giving their children different information about how they’re doing. Mom may put on a good show for the out-of-towner, who then discounts what the local sibling says.” This is all the more reason for siblings to communicate with each other, not just through mom or dad.
If you aren’t sure how to get the conversation started, Paula Spencer, senior editor for Caring.com wrote this article for Third Age which gives some helpful strategies on how to ease into the difficult topic of caring for aging parents this holiday season.
Preparing Boomers for the Finance Sandwich Squeeze
November 15, 2010
Baby-boomers are called the sandwich generation—and with good reason. They were expecting to pay for their own retirement and their children’s college education; but now recession upon recession has toppled their elderly parents’ savings, and Boomers find that they are faced with the prospect of shouldering the financial burden of their parents’ final years as well. The pressure of providing for so many people at once can quickly become overwhelming, and using one’s own savings or retirement fund can begin to look like an easy solution to immediate financial concerns.
Although it may seem like an easy fix to looming financial debt, don’t give in to the temptation to use your own savings. Before you give in to fear and drain your retirement, get some professional financial advice. This special edition recently released in the New York Times shows that it is possible to prepare for what’s coming—both for your parents and yourself.
Our first recommendation is to discuss your situation with a trusted financial advisor. After that, one of the primary suggestions offered in the Times is to talk to your parents about their situation. It may not be easy; be prepared for your initial advances to be met with resistance. Aging parents often worry that they will lose control of their own finances, or that giving decision-making capacity to one child will lead to anger or hurt feelings among their other children. Instead of gearing up for a fight, the article mentions a few ways to gently lead into the conversation (including talking about family philanthropic projects.)
Another discussion you won’t want to skip is one about Long-Term Care Insurance. This article by Ron Leiber discusses different kinds of insurance, whether or not you’ll need it (you will), and how to pay for it.
The world of “old age” is changing. People are living longer than their predecessers and are experiencing more long-term health issues. In some situations, elders may be able to rely upon Medi-Cal to subsidize the cost of residence in a nursing facility, provided that appropriate planning is in place. However, care outside of the nursing home environment usually requires reliance upon savings and/or long term care insurance if available. For veterans, a tax-free Veterans Pension may be available, even if the disability is not related to military service. Serious discussion and serious planning are essential to surviving the challenges of the “new” old age.
How to Find the Best Long-Term Care Policy
October 30, 2010
As the average life-span increases—and the cost of medical care along with it—more and more people are beginning to see the need for long-term care insurance. Simply having a retirement plan isn’t enough anymore. Saving for retirement now means not only saving for your living expenses, it means preparing and saving for your health care expenses as well; expenses which will most likely include major medical procedures, eventual in-home care, and perhaps even long-term nursing care.
The idea of long-term care insurance is no longer a new and strange one, but it’s still not a concept most people feel completely comfortable with. What kind of long-term care insurance should you be looking at? Can you get coverage for your entire life? (Probably not.) What types of care and services will be covered? (Each policy will vary.) Can you get a policy that goes into effect right away, or is there a waiting period? (There is often a waiting period.)
Not all long-term care policies are created equal. The U.S. News and World Report recently published an article advising 7 things to look at when choosing a long-term care policy. Some of the things you’ll want to pay attention to include the benefit amount, the benefit period, which services are covered, and inflation protection, just to name a few.
Choosing a long-term care policy is an important step, and not one to be taken blindly. If you are confused about long-term care policies, or unsure of which one may be right for you, don’t hesitate to ask the advice of a professional. Insurance agents, financial advisors and estate planners may all be able to help answer your questions or point you in the right direction.
Will Long-Term Care Living Arrangements Prevent You from Leaving an Inheritance?
August 16, 2010
In our last post we wrote about what matters most when choosing a long-term care living situation, suggesting that it’s not always the place that matters most, but the mind-set of the elderly person who will be living there, and how involved that person is in the decision-making process. However, this does not mean that the quality of each living place doesn’t matter at all. In fact, according to the Wall Street Journal great care should still be taken when selecting a long-term care living situation… especially if you’re considering a Continuing Care Retirement Community (CCRC).
If you are considering a CCRC for yourself or an elderly loved one, you may want to read this article in the WSJ, which mentions that although more and more older Americans are drawn to the benefits offered by a Continuing Care Retirement Community, those benefits “often come at a steep price and ‘considerable risk.’”
The article goes on to mention that “So-called CCRCs—which typically offer fine dining, health clubs and on-site long-term care—have grown in popularity along with the aging of the population, particularly among the upper-middle class and affluent,” but that “the economic downturn is making it tougher for potential new residents to sell their existing homes and fill openings in new and expanded communities, which are generally regulated by state governments. As a result, low occupancy levels are challenging the industry’s financial models.”
We mention this because many of our clients are at a time in their lives when they or their elderly parents are looking into long-term care living situations, and we see how difficult it is to sort through all the choices and find a place that fits. Not only is quality of life an important factor (maybe the most important factor), but for many people the cost of the place they choose may mean the difference between leaving their children an inheritance and dying penniless.
We urge any of our readers who are in the market for long-term care living arrangements to look carefully at all their options; ask questions, do the research, and don’t be afraid to ask for help or a second opinion.
The Next Step In Elderly Home Care
August 6, 2010
Many adult children of an aging parent get to a point in their parent’s care where they feel they have only two options: move their parent in with them so that they (or their spouse) can provide around-the-clock care, or move their parent into a nursing home. Reaching this point can be a very emotional time for both parent and child; with the parent feeling anger and frustration at the loss of independence, and the child feeling that they have somehow failed their parent.
Improving technology may never be able to remove the need for this decision entirely, but it may be able to postpone it a little. A recent article in the New York Times describes some new technologies that help adult children monitor their aging parent right inside the home, therefore removing the need (or at least delaying the need) for physical around-the-clock supervision.
One of the new technologies mentioned in the article (called GrandCare) “allows families to place movement sensors throughout a house. Information — about when doors were opened, what time a person got into and out of bed, whether there’s been any movement in a room for a certain time period — is sent out via e-mail, text message or voice mail.” It is this kind of in-home monitoring that may allow seniors to remain in their homes longer.
Some seniors have reservations about these new technologies, however, something that they consider to be an invasion of privacy. Nancy Schlossberg is quoted in the article as comparing these new technologies to nanny-cams, “Big Brother is watching you — there’s something about it that’s very offensive.” Some seniors may agree with her, but if it comes down to a choice between technological monitoring or moving to a nursing home they may find that “Big Brother” is the lesser of two evils.
Falling Through the Cracks
July 23, 2010
Our country may be facing a simultaneous growth and recession… unfortunately, according to journalist John Leland, the two seem to be at odds. What we are referring to is the growth of the elderly population and the recession of funds available to help this aging community pay for the care they need.
The economic downturn of the past few years has hit the elderly with a double-whammy. Many of them lost close to all of their savings when the stock market bottomed out, and now budget cuts to state-funded home-care services threaten to force many of them out of their homes and into hospitals or nursing facilities.
“’I’m not getting a cost-of-living adjustment, and now I’m not getting food,’ said Joyce Plennert, 83, who is on a waiting list for Meals on Wheels in Palatine, Ill. ‘Now I’m worried my home services will be cut. Without that, I’d be in a nursing home, if I could find one with room.’”
According to the above-mentioned NY Times article, a number of states have already made cuts to home-care services, including Alabama, Arizona, California, Colorado, Florida, Kansas, Mississippi, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York and Texas. “The situation is grim, and it’s safe to say that present trends are expected to continue,”
These budget cuts impact more than just senior citizens—they affect the professional caregivers and home aides who lose their jobs when state programs are cancelled, as well as the families of the elderly. When these seniors lose their ability to live at home it’s their families who will have to pick up the slack either by contributing to the costs of care or more often by becoming the caregivers themselves.
If you or a loved one is facing a loss of benefits due to budget cuts don’t be afraid to explore your options. Geriatric care managers can help families through confusing times, and other advisors such as elder lawyers, estate planners, financial planners and others can offer valuable advice when creating your plan for the future.
Should A Bank Help You Care for Your Elderly Parents?
July 8, 2010
The influential Baby Boomer generation is aging, which means more and more of them are taking on the responsibility of caring for their elderly parents, and the Boomers are beginning to face up to the fact that they will need caregiving themselves in the not-so-distant future.
Large banks are not immune to this trend—and the potential to increase their client base by offering financial elder-care services. The question is, how effective can a bank be at helping you care for your elderly relatives?
According to this article in the Wall Street Journal banks can be helpful with certain financial issues such as helping to “sort out medical bills, hire in-home care or even manage the sale of a home.” Some of the larger banks are even beginning to offer more in-depth services such as “estate planning and setting up powers of attorney… crisis management (triggered, say, by a broken hip or a car accident); health and home assessments; Medicare-coverage selection and claims management; and evaluating retirement communities and long-term-care facilities.”
All of this sounds great, but before you get too excited our firm would like to caution you to be as careful about hiring a bank to do your estate or elder care planning as you would be with engaging any other attorney or professional advisor. After all, as the WSJ article says, “banks and trust companies aren’t doing this solely out of the goodness of their hearts. Providing extra services targeted at the elderly and their family caregivers can bump up the asset-management fees that clients pay each year. . . [or] persuade a few clients to move assets to an institution to meet its minimum deposit requirements.”
So we urge you, before you jump into anything—whether it be with a bank, an attorney, a CPA or other important advisor—do the research and ask all the questions you need to ask in order to find out whether this advisor truly knows their stuff; knows the ins and outs of the law and the care-giving industry; and most important of all, make sure the person or institution you hire will be working for you, will be your advocate and your ally during difficult and confusing times. Further, to the extent your loved one needs legal services to plan for incapacity, to implement asset preservation strategies, to design an estate plan or to plan for Medi-Cal or other public benefits, our strong recommendation is to first seek the advice and guidance of an Elder Law attorney knowledgeable in the field. In our opinion, acquiring these skills takes years of study, practice and experience.
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