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Preparing to Care for Elders
How should families prepare to care for their elders?
In preparing to care for ill members, families have to concern themselves with an overwhelming amount of confusing information, emotional issues and decisions ranging from nursing home care to protecting one's life assets. Therefore, it is important to have systems in place for the appropriate time.
All families should have documents in place that allows the members to step in, in the event of an illness. These documents include durable powers of attorney, which authorize another person to handle business affairs if they are unable to themselves, and medical directives, which name someone to make healthcare decisions should they become incapacitated. These directives are easy to draw up and should be notarized.
They should transfer assets of the estate from husband and wife and wife to husband. All property should be held in joint tenancy so, in the event of an unexpected death, the property would pass to the survivor without probate or other complications. Bank accounts and other items should be jointly held for the same reasons. Lastly, everyone should have a simple living will. The document is not intended to transfer assets upon death, but to give insight to the elder's intentions regarding assets, without relying on the interpretation of the heirs.
What type of planning should be done before retirement?
There are exceptions to every rule, but here are the basics to consider when planning for retirement.
- Downsize your lifestyle as retirement approaches. This may be a bitter pill and people may feel like they're going backward, but they're not. They're using cash available to them for other assets.
- The Family home has a lot of equity and is a savings account being left untouched. Look at purchasing a home that is flat and without obstruction for egress and does not require much maintenance.
- Determine what your Social Security benefits will be so you can start incorporating that information into your planning. Evaluate your assets along with the Social Security benefits to determine what your monthly income will be until you get your first Social Security check.
- Self-fund your IRAs or other retirement programs to the maximum and save as much money as possible. These are tax-free dollars that can't be ignored. Look at matching tax or retirement programs your employer may offer.
- Have notarized durable powers of attorney for healthcare and finance.
- Do not buy trusts.
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