Protecting Your Little Ones

The Wall Street Journal typically focuses their editorial slant on financial assets, but an article last week actually touches on a much more important aspect of estate planning: Who will take care of your child(ren) if you die? It’s a tough question to face, but if ignored, it leaves the fate of an orphaned child entirely up to someone who usually is a stranger – a judge.

If you are the parent – or grandparent – of a minor child, here are some tips that might get you (or your adult child) motivated to complete proper planning:

Choose a guardian for now. Remember, you can change your mind and modify your will in the future.

Think outside the box. The guardian you name does not have to be a blood relative.

Remember that nobody’s perfect. You probably are not a “perfect” (i.e., flawless) choice to parent your own children – neither is anyone else.

Consider a mixed approach. You may want to name a guardian for your children, someone who is great with the kids; and a guardian for the estate to handle the finances.

Do you know what the single most important aspect of a Will is? Getting it done of course. All the great intentions and discussions will accomplish nothing without the completed documents. Call us today and let’s get started on the documents you need to protect your loved ones now and into the future. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

The Sandwich Generation Gets Squeezed

As our population ages, more Americans find themselves in the role of caregiver for their elderly parents – often before they have completely graduated from the parenting role for their own children. A recent issue of Financial Advisor Magazine addresses the question of what trusted financial advisors can do to help their clients with caretaker challenges. Advice includes helping ensure all necessary legal documents are in order – for both the caretakers and their charges; finding financial assistance to hire help; and investigating the role of long term care insurance.

The Sandwich generation is a term used to describe people who care for their aging parents while supporting their own children. According to the Pew Research Center, just over 1 of every 8 Americans aged 40 to 60 is both raising a child and caring for a parent, in addition to between 7 to 10 million adults caring for their aging parents from a long distance.

If you are the one providing daily care for a loved one, you owe it to yourself to seek help; to take care of yourself and your needs, both physically and mentally. You owe it to those you care for to be your most efficient and effective; often that means a little help from the outside. Seek out professional help that will ease your burden. Look for community service organizations that offer respite help. If you don’t know where to start call us. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

When Medicine Becomes a Menace

Seniors are increasingly reliant upon their medications. It’s a fact of life – Literally!

However, with so many different kinds of medications to do so many different things, at times the medications or their combinations can cause as much harm as good. According to a recent study from the Center for Disease Control, as reported here, two-thirds of drug-related emergency hospitalizations result from just four types of medications.

These four types of medicine are sadly, also very common. They are listed below in order, from the greatest to the least percentage of adverse instances per drug, whether taken together or separately:

1. A blood-thinning medication called warfarin (Coumadin, Jantoven)
2. Insulin
3. Antiplatelet drugs used to prevent blood clots such as aspirin and clopidogrel (Plavix)
4. Oral hypoglycemic agents – a diabetes medicine

The most important fact, however, is that nearly two-thirds of all such cases were not just the drugs themselves; they were the result of unintentional overdoses.

It’s scary to see such common medicines listed, and if you or loved ones use them there is cause to take notice, but the real lesson is awareness and care. There are real consequences when care is not received properly or when an elderly person is not able to accurately gauge their medications. There are many solutions involving a variety of levels of caregiving as well as many ways to fund that care. At Idaho Estate Planning we have a network of resources to help you care for yourself and/or your loved ones. Let’s work together and initiate a plan that works for your individual circumstances. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Recognize the Need for Help in Caregiving

Caregivers often don’t recognize when they are in over their heads, and often get to a breaking point. After a prolonged period of time, caregiving can become too difficult to endure any longer. Short-term the caregiver can handle it. Long-term, help is needed. Outside help at this point is needed.

A typical pattern with an overloaded caregiver may unfold as follows:

• 1 to 18 months – the caregiver is confident, has everything under control and is coping well. Other friends and family are lending support.
• 20 to 36 months – the caregiver may be taking medication to sleep and control mood swings. Outside help dwindles away and except for trips to the store or doctor, the caregiver has severed most social contacts. The caregiver feels alone and helpless.
• 38 to 50 months – Besides needing tranquilizers or antidepressants, the caregiver’s physical health is beginning to deteriorate. Lack of focus and sheer fatigue cloud judgment and the caregiver is often unable to make rational decisions or ask for help.

It is often at this stage that family or friends intercede and find other solutions for care. This may include respite care, hiring home health aides or putting the disabled loved one in a facility. Without intervention, the caregiver may become a candidate for long term care as well.

With the holiday season upon us, caregivers feel even more stress — with planning, shopping and participating in holiday activities. This is a perfect time for family and friends to step up and provide some respite time and caregiving help. Whether it is provided personally or arranged as a gift of services to be provided by a professional respite company or home care provider, it is a welcome gift.

An article in “Today’s Caregiver” states:

“Nearly one in four caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias provide 40 hours a week or more of care. Seventy-one percent sustain this commitment for more than a year, and 32 percent do so for five years or more. One of the best gifts you can give someone caring for Alzheimer’s is something that relieves the stress or provides a bit of respite for the caregiver.
The Gift of time: Cost-effective and truly meaningful gifts are self-made coupons for cleaning the house, preparing a meal, moving lawn/shoveling driveway, respite times that allow the caregiver time off to focus on what he/she needs.”

Hiring professionals can provide valuable ongoing support to an overloaded caregiver. There are also cash benefits for Veterans, who served during a period of war, that pay for home care or assisted living. At Idaho Estate Planning we have the resources to help you put together an effective team to fill your long-term care needs. We are the experts in Idaho when it comes to Medicaid planning and pre-planning as well as Veteran’s Pension benefits.

If you are the one providing daily care for a loved one, you owe it to yourself to seek help; to take care of yourself and your needs, both physically and mentally. You owe it to those you care for to be your most efficient and effective; often that means a little help from the outside. Seek out professional help that will ease your burden. Look for community service organizations that offer respite help. If you don’t know where to start call us. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Are You Ready for the “Holiday Reality Check”?

The Holidays bring families together, which is a great thing, especially for those family members separated by geography. But since the holidays also mean spending time with your parents and elderly loved ones, it can be a shock. The New Old Age Blog at the New York Times recently referred to this shock as the “Holiday Reality Check”.

All those months of checking in over the phone or getting reports from a sibling might have led you to believe that all was well with your elderly loved ones. Now, when you actually see them face to face, all is not well on the home front.

It hits in greater and lesser degrees: Finding a loved one to be fairly forgetful, much more than before. Perhaps it’s finding stacks of unpaid bills and old food filling the fridge, or discovering that the nursing home selected was the wrong choice. No doubt many readers already have encountered their own Reality Check during a Thanksgiving visit, but the important thing is that the holidays aren’t over yet. No, they are just ramping up.

As we venture deeper into the holiday season, you may seize the opportunity to pay more attention and begin to right some wrongs sooner rather than later. For many, this might mean an up-front and realistic discussion about what needs to happen, whether that be planning for the estate, writing advanced directives, or pursuing care.

However, there also are more gentle steps that can be taken and some pragmatic ones as well. Fixes that you can offer from afar might mean hiring helpers or even professional geriatric care managers to work in your stead.

The important thing is what the holidays mean about and for your family. Consider this a clarion call to be proactive while there still is time to plan, rather to be reactive when time to plan is past.

At Idaho Estate Planning, we can help you find the resources you need to put your estate plan together. We have the experience and expertise to help you maintain your options and protect yourself as well as your loved ones now and into the future. Remember, good planning is no accident!

Idaho Estate Planning is part of the Senior Resource Network of Idaho, a non-profit network of elder care professionals available to provide information on what we discussed above and much more. Let us know your concerns and we will help you find the resources you need.

In addition to caring for your parents or other family members, it is also important to consider your own concerns for the future. How will you maintain your independence as you grow older? What effect would a costly health issue have on your quality of life? The more planning you do now the less difficulty there will be later. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Medicare and Medicaid Dodge the Budget Bullet (For Now)

Have you heard the news? It seems the grand experiment failed. The Congressional supercommittee, charged with doing what the Congress at large could not do, has run out of time. And, by running out of time, failed in its mission to come up with budget cuts.

What does that mean for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries?

As Reuters reports, in the event the supercommittee should fail, as it has, then automatic and sweeping cuts go into effect. For Medicare, that means a two percent cut across the board, or about $123 billion over the next decade. However, it might have been $500 billion to $700 billion in cuts, if various supercommittee arguments had prevailed.

Nevertheless, as it stands, there definitely will be a little pain, but not quite as much for individual beneficiaries. No, likely it will hit hospitals and doctors the hardest. Why? In the aggregate, that’s where the money tends to end up.

Of course, we’re not yet out of the woods. Just as it became clear last summer that we’d have to wait until the winter for some kind of budget solution from Congress, it now seems that we’ll have to wait for the upcoming election season. In turn, expect things to intensify even further and for budget discussions to become all the more drastic.

Trying to keep up to date on Medicaid, Medicare or any other issues faced by America’s Elderly can be a daunting task. At Idaho Estate Planning, we understand these challenges. We have the experience and expertise to help you maintain your options and protect yourself as well as your loved ones now and into the future. Remember, good planning is no accident!

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Impoverished Seniors Rate Nearly Doubles

It’s been fairly clear that medical expenses were becoming an immense financial drain on the elderly. If you are elderly or have an elderly loved one, then this is a given, as supported by recent census data.

As reported in Reuters, the number of poor persons hit a record high in 2010, and poverty rates among the elderly have had the steepest gain.

In fact, according to the census, a record 49 million Americans (i.e., 16 percent of the population) qualify as impoverished. When it comes to the elderly, the poverty level jumped to 15.9 percent, or roughly 1 in 6, from the previous year’s nine percent.

It’s true that the census study and methods have become a political flashpoint. However, the new analysis takes a broader look at life and includes government benefits. Previous studies used older methods that failed to account for how people maintained their standard of living.

Politics aside, these are still sobering data. If government benefits have become that much more of the equation, then it goes a long way towards showing what’s at stake in the present and upcoming political storms.

For many of America’s elderly that find themselves struggling to meet growing health costs a solution comes in the form of an underutilized VA benefit. For veterans who served during a time of war or for their surviving spouses, the Veterans Aid & Attendance Pension will pay additional income to cover long term care costs. Pension can provide an additional monthly income of up to $2,019 a month for a couple, $1,703 a month for a single veteran or $1,093 a month for a single surviving spouse of a veteran. This money can be used to help pay the cost of home care, adult day services, assisted living or nursing home services.

We are VA Accredited and we know how to help veterans get the benefits they have earned through their greatly appreciated service to our country. Remember, good planning in no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Decision Making as We Age

Why do many of the most difficult decisions we face come later in life? I guess it’s just fact of life. Unfortunately, we’re not always at the top of our game when those decisions must be made. Therefore, it’s essential to make proper plans earlier, rather than later.

According to a recent study, reported on here by the Wall Street Journal, the decline starts around age 60. The scores on a test measuring knowledge of investments, insurance, credit and money basics fell about 2% each year starting after age 60. In fact, they fell from about 59% correct for those in their 60s to a dismal 30% for those 80 and older. What’s almost as bad is that these very people actually grew more confident in their decisions and knowledge.

Problem: These are the very same people who are attempting to sift through the messy and confusing programs like Medicare and Social Security, at the very same time they are undergoing this dramatic change in their mental agility. These also are the people who will want to take care of their loved ones in their estate plans in an era of constantly changing laws and regulations.

If you are the adult child of older parents, this is something to bear in mind when seeking to help them, perhaps especially when your assistance is unwanted. Likewise, as a parent, fact of life will necessitate a bit of self-understanding. And for everyone, this means that proper estate planning should be done earlier, rather than later. Many estate plans fail when it comes to planning for incapacity and/or disability, call us today at 208-939-7658 and we will work together to build the estate plan you and your family need and deserve. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Hospital–Induced Delirium

When the elderly visit the hospital it’s simply not the same as when they were younger. No, everything is more dangerous.

The New Old Age Blog at the New York Times recently discussed a danger that is all too common, but still under the radar screens of medical and the everyday worlds alike. It’s the problem of elderly delirium.

Usually, when we talk about an elderly person no longer being themselves, we think of dementia. Nevertheless, another dramatic neurological problem is delirium and it is often, ironically, brought on by hospital visits. Here’s what happens: When the elderly are put under such heavy medication it can generate a neurological imbalance that results in dramatic disorientation, sudden confusion, and loss of attention. The list of medications that can have this affect is fairly long, including sedatives, sleeping pills, narcotic painkillers and some allergy, blood pressure and incontinence drugs. As a result, it’s not a surprise that delirium is common.

Each year 20 percent of the 11.8 million elderly patients in hospitals develop delirium. This includes some 60 percent to 85 percent of those in intensive care on ventilation and more than half of postoperative surgical patients.

The problem is that delirium also can have long-term effects, according to recent research. In the end, many hospitals may be doing long-term damage to their patients. For more information and a stirring example, read the original story here. Be sure to take a look at the checklist to help determine the difference between dementia and delirium.

If you are elderly do yourself a favor and forward this message on to those who would be your support should you end up in the hospital. The members or your Disability Panel are a good place to start. If you don’t have a Disability Panel call 208-939-7658 and we’ll help you set up your estate plan to include this critical option. Remember, good planning is no accident.

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet

Old Age Costs Rising

Are you planning for your old age or perhaps the old age of a loved one? If yes, then you know that such planning is all about getting a handle on healthcare. Unfortunately, the most recent study from MetLife indicates that the costs for long-term care and assisted living are rising at an even faster rate than in previous years despite the weak economy.

According to the MetLife study:

• The national average daily rate for a private room in a nursing home rose 4.4% from $229 in 2010 to $239 in 2011.
• The national average monthly base rate in an assisted living community rose 5.6% from $3,293 in 2010 to $3,477 in 2011.
• The national average daily rate for adult day services rose 4.5% from $67 in 2010 to $70 in 2011.
• The national average hourly rates for home health aides ($21) and homemakers ($19) were unchanged from 2010.

Businessweek offers some coverage of the development, along with the words of the director of the MetLife Mature Market Institute, Sandra Timmermann. According to Timmermann, “The state of the economy, combined with rising health-care and energy costs, are having a significant impact on long-term care rates.”

Indeed, even though MetLife is the largest life insurer in the U.S., it also has discontinued its long-term care insurance policies for these very reasons. Likewise, the CLASS Act (the first public-option long-term care insurance) recently shut down. In the end, this is rather grim news for those planning for their old age or an elder loved one.

At Idaho Estate Planning, we can help you find the resources you need to put your estate plan together. We have the experience and expertise to help you maintain your options and protect yourself as well as your loved ones now and into the future. Remember, good planning is no accident!

Idaho Estate Planning

Promote Your Page Too

Tweet