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Cost: Caregivers lose over $3 trillion in lost earnings, benefits and savings.
There are approximately 9.7 million Americans over the age of 50 caring for their parents. The cost of caring for an elderly parent is significant. According to MetLife, total wage, social security, and private pension losses due to caregiving could range from $283,716 for men to $324,044 for women.2 Given the high costs associated with being a caregiver, families need to better prepare for and understand the financial and emotional costs associated with becoming a caregiver. Below is a chart that describes the stages of care giving. While the stages can be linear some adult children find themselves immediately thrust into providing full-time support due to unforeseen circumstances.
2: Source: The MetLife Study of Caregiving Costs to Working Caregivers https://www.metlife.com/assets/cao/mmi/publications/studies/2011/mmi-caregivingcosts-working-caregivers.pdf
Stages of Care
Awareness
Caregivers Role
Become your parents key advisor. Assess your parents health care needs. Monitor their financial assets. Help them with major financial decisions. Engage your parents health care providers. Research and select service providers for health care, lifestyle, and financial matters.
Assistance
Assist parents with financial matters. Assist with basic activities for daily living.
Determine where your parents will live (i.e. smaller home, nursing or assisted living, in your residence). Full-time Support Oversee your parents health care needs. Manage their basic activities for daily living. Administer their finances and take on any financial liabilities. Share Dignitas Briefing Paper Preparing to Care for Elderly Parents By Nicholas Delgado
Stage 2: Assistance Assisting your parents with their daily living needs.
Adult children who are actively assisting with some of their parents daily living manage to do so in many different forms. Some children are able to coordinate care remotely by using outsourced paid assistance while others do so by living close to their parents. Regardless of their situation, at this point a caregiver is likely spending several hours a week and could even be contributing financial resources to aid in the care of their parents. At this stage its vital that a caregiver focuses on ensuring their parents financial and health matters are well organized in order to ease the burden of care.
Research and Select Service Providers for Health Care, Lifestyle, and Financial Matters
Creating a support network is vital for caregivers. This includes coordinating paid service providers such as in-home care nurses and overseeing financial, legal and other advisors. Its important to find advisors who specialize in elder issues and can provide a caregiver with additional resources and information.
During the Assistance Stage you will likely take on partial responsibility for managing routine daily activities such as grocery shopping, maintaining their residence, and coordinating medical needs and appointments. Caregivers approach these responsibilities in multiple ways including taking on the full burden, coordinating the work with other family members, and outsourcing the tasks to paid service providers. As caregivers take on more of these tasks they often overlook the impact of their caregiver responsibilities on their professional careers Caregivers should monitor the time they are spending on caregiver issues to determine when to seek outside help. Some companies provide employer assistance programs to help employees manage complicated personal situations. A caregiver can also ask for assistance from siblings, spouses or other family members.
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Personal Benchmarking
Dignitas provides the material in this briefing paper for informational purposes only. The material provided herein is not intended to be tax, health care or legal advice. Nothing herein should be relied upon or used without consulting a tax advisor or lawyer to consider your specific circumstances, possible changes to applicable laws, rules and regulations and other tax and legal issues. Dignitas is an Investment Advisor Registered with the State of Illinois.
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AARP
www.aarp.org
AARP is a membership organization leading positive social change and delivering value to people age 50 and over through information, advocacy and service.
Dignitas www.mydignitas.com
Dignitas is a leading multi-family office, capital advisory, and asset management firm that provides a wide range of services to entrepreneurs, executives, and non-profits.
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