One of the most challenging things to go through in life is dealing with senior parents. It’s not easy for you but it’s certainly not easy for them, either. They go through their lives ensuring that you are doing well and you are fed, clothed and cared for, so it becomes your reality to return the favor to them one day. You have to be prepared as the adult child of a senior parent for them to get some help, and it’s not an easy conversation to have.
Even if you are the one in charge of all of the family affairs, you need to get some help from time to time. It’s a huge amount of pressure to take on by yourself – caring for a family member – and you might be distrusting of care facilities after reading about them on nursinghomelawcenter.org. However, while this is going to be a challenge for you all, you can make the right adjustments for it to work. Here are six things that you need to have in place for your elderly parents.
1. Get your paperwork in order. Your parents need to have their Will and Power of Attorney sorted before they die and before they lose their mental faculties to make decisions. These are such important papers that they need to be filled in as quickly as possible before they lose their lucidity.
2. Get a lawyer. It’s not enough for your parents not to know about getting a Will, they need help with this! Estate planning is so much more than selling a house, and if there are healthcare directives that need to be laid out, they need to be included in the estate plan. So, you should ensure that they have their preferences for executor of the will sorted out as early as possible.
3. Keep these documents together. Buy a dedicated folder if you must, but make sure that your parents have all of their legal documents in one place so that they don’t lose any of them. It needs to be easy to find in the event of their death.
4. Get to know their money. Before your parents pass away, get to know their financial status. This will mean you don’t get any nasty surprises with their bills and payments when they die. Their home and their assets have value and you need to know where this value is coming from! You should also know who they pay for their house and bills so that you can continue to do the same if you take the house as your own.
5. Get to know their debts. While you’re getting to know their incoming finances, make sure that you know their debt situation, too. If there are any owed funds, the estate has to pay these back first before other debts. It’s a priority and you need to know them!
6. Know their medical insurance information. When a parent dies, you need to know that they have insurance sorted out so that you don’t have any nasty surprises later.
