Family Caregivers and Money

New research from EMD Serono’s Embracing Carers initiative found that 54% of family caregivers said that the COVID-19 pandemic has worsened their financial health. To help pay for their parent’s medical and living costs, children may have to use money they were saving for retirement or their own children’s higher education. If a caregiver has to quit a full-time job, this may reduce their future Social Security benefits and keep them from saving for their own retirement at work.   There are a number of ways parents and children can work together to ease this financial burden for both sides. First, parents need to help document all of their financial information, including location of assets, titles and deeds, attorney and accountant contact information, and life and burial insurance policies. Before a crisis occurs, parents should assign healthcare and financial power of attorney to their children to allow them to make key decisions when they’re no longer able to able to do so on their own.   Parents should also consider getting long-term care insurance to enable them to receive skilled care in their homes without consuming all of their savings. Some policies can be combined with life insurance to provide death benefits to heirs if the long-term care benefits aren’t used.   Children need to be sensitive in the way they bring up these issues. Start by offering to do small tasks, such as opening their parents’ mail or making sure bills have been paid. When it’s time to make major decisions, frame the discussion as a gift between generations: Children give their time to help their parents deal with declining health, and parents provide the financial support and cooperation to prevent this assistance from becoming a burden.  To help sort through these complex issues, parents and children may wish to hire a qualified fee-only fiduciary investment adviser. But it’s important to research their background and licenses to make sure they’re not members of the large community of scammers and criminals who prey on the elderly.  

Om Podcasten

Whatever life after 50 looks like to you, thinking about money in retirement shouldn’t keep you up at night. We’re all dealing with the big questions about money and aging: How much you can really spend, how to invest your life savings without risking it all in the stock market, and should you sell your home and downsize? Then there’s the biggest unknown: how much health care you’ll need, and whether your savings and insurance is enough to cover the costs. This is personal. These topics may not be easy to talk about with your own family. That’s why nationally known personal finance experts Terry Savage, Richard Eisenberg, and Pam Krueger and are here to open up the dialogue so you can learn how to define your retirement and deal with your money on your own terms. These three friends think, write, and speak about these issues. And now they’re joining forces to give you the benefit of their experience, wisdom and advice in their new podcast, Friends Talk Money. Each week Richard, Pam and Terry will discuss a different piece of the retirement pie. Everything from Social Security and Medicare to investing and cash flow management is on the table, with practical, common-sense advice on how to deal with these and other challenges. But don’t expect cut-and-dried answers. These friends have strong opinions, and aren’t afraid to debate the pros and cons of their friends’ recommendations. But what you will walk away after each episode is a greater awareness of the retirement planning issues you’ll need to address with the help of your family, friends and financial advisor.