This week’s post is brought to you by one of our guest bloggers; Steve Johnson of Long Term Care Advisors.
Long-Term Care is a topic on many people’s minds today. While it may be something you are considering for yourself, another reason to consider it could be right in front of you: Your Family. History has shown us that parents that do not plan adequately for their long term care needs can end up sacrificing their income, assets and financial promises they’ve made—perhaps irrevocably in order to pay for care. Parents often overlook the physical, emotional and financial damage done to family members who are personally involved in delivering your long-term care. If you have family and you do not have a long-term care plan and you need long-term care services, it’s likely your children and family will be your Long Term Care plan. After all, what choice will you have given them?
When a family gets involved in providing long term care for parents there are many issues; among them: time management, geography and funding. Think about how pressed for time your children already are—balancing families, careers and child activities. Consider the challenges if they tried to care for you if you do not all live in the same city. Then there is funding your care. Someone will pay. Further, surveys show that most children do not want to take care of their parents, but when faced with these circumstances—they can and almost always do care for their parents…even if their relationship is not strong with their parent.
Long Term Care and it’s challenges can often require more and more of family members’ involvement as time passes. The collateral damage associated with being directly involved in a family member’s long term care plan can often involve irreversible damage to relationships within the caregivers, and there can also be profound resentment toward the folks that the care is being delivered to. There are also the personal “costs” that your family will experience as caregiving impacts their career, children, church or synagogue. The time that is usually allocated to these areas of life has now been allocated to you.
There are a variety of ways available to remove this potential burden from your family.
Talk to your advisor now to become more educated and informed as to what your Long Term Care Planning Options may be.
Steve Johnson of Long Term Care Advisors is a guest blogger. He received no compensation for his contribution. His opinions are not necessarily the opinions of TRPG.