Many elderly people need help staying at home, but they also need help in other areas of their lives. This is why each Stay at Home agency assembles a Total Family Care Team made up of trusted providers of companion care, medical care, facility care, legal planning, financial planning, mortuary planning, home maintenance, and medical equipment.
Financial planning
By the time you get to be a senior citizen you will have lived an eventful life—eventful and sometimes complicated.
Your financial life will be no exception. You may have investments dating back decades, plus individual retirement accounts, real estate, and various other accounts you hardly remember.
Believe it or not, it can be a substantial job just to get a clear accounting of your assets and liabilities. That’s why we recommend to our new clients that they have a trusted professional take a comprehensive look at their financial situation. At one extreme, we have had clients who were uncertain they could afford their care discover that they were, in fact, multimillionaires.
But even if you’re not so lucky, a professional can show you how to minimize your tax burden, make arrangements for you own care, and prepare an inheritance for your loved ones.
When we discuss financial issues with families, here are four questions we ask:
- Have you and your loved one developed a plan for their financial future?
- Does the plan address the potential for long-term health care needs?
- Does the plan address monthly cost of living expenses?
- Are your loved one’s assets known and are they living up to expectations?
We work with financial planners that we trust. There is typically no cost to have a professional analyze your financial situation, just as we at Stay at Home don’t charge to evaluate the safety of your home.
So see a financial advisor. The information you receive will give you the confidence that you’re living your life intelligently.
Information for this post comes from Andy Houck, owner and administrator of Stay at Home of Loudon.