How To Proactively Plan To Reduce the Impact of Caring For Elderly Family Members

Much has been written about our nation’s need to help mothers in the workplace. Many benefits, such as maternity leave and nursing stations, are present or well on their way towards implementation in many U.S. states. With employees working later in life, due, in part, to the rise in the regular Social Security retirement age, it is becoming increasingly important that we start to talk about the crisis facing the other end of the spectrum: America’s working daughters, many of whom are also mothers.

According to the Census Bureau, 44 million unpaid eldercare providers work in the U.S. Many of these people are family caregivers: The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2013-2014, “[t]here were 6.3 million elder care providers who cared solely for someone with whom they lived.”

The impact on working daughters is significant. In addition to lost wages, Social Security and retirement benefits drop when women earn less due to caregiving responsibilities. And that’s only for the women who are fortunate enough to stay in their current positions. Many must quit their jobs or take less demanding, lower-paying work so that they can care for their elderly family members.

By planning in advance, you can mitigate the risk that caregiving an elderly parent will have on your family.

It begins with getting comfortable talking with your parents (or your children if you are in the senior generation), openly and honestly about late in life care. When families work together there doesn’t need to be a burden, but instead the whole family can create a plan that most effectively uses the family’s resources to create an outcome that supports everyone.

We can look at these issues proactively with your family during a Family Wealth Planning Session, which is what sets us apart from other lawyers in the community who are typically only focused on creating legal documents to pass on financial assets after you (or senior family members) die.

When done this way, estate planning is not just for the wealthy; it’s for all families that want to work together to use their resources in support of intergenerational well-being.