Many have reached a stage in their lives where we have begun thinking, making plans, or actually making arrangements to care for our parents. Sometimes this means helping our parents find the healthcare services they need. Or, it could mean we invite our parents to move in with us in order to oversee their care, or we begin making medical and daily living decisions for them.
These actions carry not only psychological considerations and consequences but also require financial decisions. It’s difficult enough to decide what is the right thing to do about our parents as they age, but we also have to determine what is the right thing to do with regard to our parent’s health care and living situations without worrying about how to fund the expenses. In addition, we often have siblings who may have ideas about parent care that conflict with ours.
Navigating through this maze of what’s best for our parents, where the money will come from, and working through issues with our siblings can be draining. There is the probability for tension within our immediate family as well as within our extended family.
We believe this process has a set of best practices. The best practices for caring for parents are based on how we can not only make your life better (or at least better than it is now) but also how we can make our parent’s lives better.
Some of the best practices we suggest you consider are:
- Doing an inventory of your parent’s assets
- Making sure you and your parents have your estate planning documents in place.
- Organizing and securing a safe place for all health directives so loved ones know what to do in certain circumstances.
- Creating a financial plan for your parents to determine extra cash needs.
- Helping you find appropriate professionals for Medicaid and Medicare planning if necessary.
- Helping you find the proper specialists in the medical community to to assist you in making decisions that are in your parent’s best interests.
The transition of caring for your parents is one of the major events that could happen in your life. We believe that starting early is often a good thing to do. We can help our Clients begin planning before a triggering event occurs. Then, we can help make their lives better if, and when, the time comes to start making parental decisions none of us want to envision having to make.