Planning Long Term Care with your Parents

Your parents are getting older, and you’re probably worried that they might need care or get admitted in a much expensive facility few years from now.  It’s quite rare nowadays for elders in their 60s to maintain healthy mind and body, since more and more people—both young and old–are crippled with illnesses or disability as result of their lifestyle.

Now, let’s go straight to the point. The reason you’re anxious about your parent’s future care is you might be paying the hefty hospital bills, the caregiver’s monthly wage, and worst, the costly accommodation in a nursing home, because your parents have not anticipated their future health and their retirement savings would not suffice the devastating long term care costs.

Anyone who has experienced planning for long term care would exclaim the difficulty in starting a feasible plan, but the good results you will reap out of early preparation are thrice your stress and effort. One of the challenges is discussing your plans with your parents. Nevertheless, it would be better to inform your parents about your plans so this could best serve their interest.

Some of the aspects you need to evaluate with your parents are but not limited to  the following:

• care options
• type of long-term care the family can afford
• the possibility of buying long term care insurance
• assets that can be sold when the family runs out of budget or when rejected by insurance company
• the person/s responsible for care-giving
•  other financing alternatives?
• legal documents that may be needed