Contributed by: Sandra Adams, CFP®
According to the Family Caregiver Alliance, more than 1 in 6 Americans work full-time or part-time and assist with caring for an elderly or disabled family member, relative, or friend. 70% of working caregivers suffer work-related difficulties due to their dual roles. Many caregivers feel they have no choice about taking on their caregiving responsibilities (nearly 50%). A significant number of caregivers experience unwanted changes in employment and lost productivity and wages due to their caregiving responsibilities, which impacts their future financial security.
What if more of these caregivers had been able to anticipate their future caregiving responsibilities? What if they could have been better prepared for their responsibilities and have been able to, as much as possible, put plans and resources in place to help prevent these changes to their own lives from happening? Or what if they could even help their aging parents or family members get their financial affairs and other longevity plans in order before significant care needs started occurring so they had a real plan in place, too?
This is what proactive longevity planning is all about. It can happen, but the truth is that few people do it. Who wants to think about the day that either they or a loved one will not be able to care for themselves on their own? Or live in their own home any longer? Or may not have the capacity to make decisions for themselves (or have to make decisions for a loved one because they can no longer make decisions for themselves)?
Even though these are difficult conversations and topics to approach, if you are lucky enough to have the opportunity to plan, this can put you in the best position to avoid obstacles later.
Planning for the Older Adult
Find a trained professional to help you and your family design a longevity plan. In many cases, this may be a financial advisor with special training in the area of longevity planning and/or gerontology. Items to be discussed during this planning include:
How can I use my financial income and assets to support me as I age?
If I need long-term care assistance in the future, how can I pay for that based on my individual situation?
If I am no longer able to care for myself in the future, how would I like to be cared for? Where would I like to be cared for?
If care cannot be provided for me in my own home, where would I consider being cared for?
Are my estate planning documents in order to best carry out my longevity plan?
How can I make sure my monetary and life values are passed on to my family the way I would like them to be?
How would I like to be cared for at the end of life? Is my plan in place to make that happen when the time comes?
Planning for Caregivers
According to a recent AARP study, there are currently 37.1 million unpaid caregivers caring for older adults. One-quarter of those are in what we call the “sandwich” generation – those who are also in the prime of their careers and getting serious about planning for their own financial independence. Taking the initiative to plan for the time when caregiving is another responsibility can be crucial to making life work for these folks without undue emotional, psychological, and financial stress.
Where to Start?
From the very beginning, plan to find ways to manage your own caregiver stress. We know that this is a big risk to caregivers, so going in knowing that this needs to be managed puts you ahead of the game. What are things that you can be doing to get ahead of managing stress?
Know the resources in your community that you can call on for help (paid and unpaid). This can be family, community resources (senior centers, churches, other non-profits), and paid caregiving resources. Find your version of the Area Agency on Aging, a.k.a. Ageways (a Michigan resource) for no or low-cost resources in your state. You should also find a qualified geriatric care manager (GCM) to help you with all things safety and care-related in your area (you can find a qualified GCM in your area at www.aginglifecare.org).
Work with the individual in need of care’s longevity plan (if they have one) to make sure to best utilize their financial resources in conjunction with their legal resources and any government resources to help them get the help that they need so that you can continue to also provide for you and your family.
Rely on longevity professionals to do what they do best: manage the financial resources, keep the legal resources updated, help you manage the health, care, and medical resources, etc. Please do not feel that you have to do it all yourself.
When and if it comes to moving the person you are caring for to a facility, utilize the services of a professional to help you assess the needs of your loved one, narrow down the appropriate facilities, and vet out the appropriate possible choices to help make that overwhelming “task” seem not so impossible.
Caregiving, if planned for in advance, can be a beautiful gift. If you can build a team and utilize available resources to avoid the pitfalls of caregiver stress, you can enjoy giving back to a parent or family member who likely cared for you when you were young – there is something special about that!
If you would like to watch a replay of our recent Longevity Virtual Conference focused on Caregiver Issues and Resources, feel free to access it here.
Sandra Adams, CFP®, is a Partner and CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ professional at Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® and holds a CeFT™ designation. She specializes in Elder Care Financial Planning and serves as a trusted source for national publications, including The Wall Street Journal, Research Magazine, and Journal of Financial Planning.
The foregoing information has been obtained from sources considered to be reliable, but we do not guarantee that it is accurate or complete, it is not a statement of all available data necessary for making an investment decision, and it does not constitute a recommendation. Any opinions are those of Sandra D. Adams and not necessarily those of Raymond James.
Securities offered through Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. Member FINRA/SIPC. Investment advisory services offered through Center for Financial Planning, Inc. Center for Financial Planning, Inc.® is not a registered broker/dealer and is independent of Raymond James Financial Services.