Financial Care: Caring For Your Aging Parents

Financial Care: Caring For Your Aging Parents

As the population ages, many Canadians will soon find themselves caring for their parents or asking their adult children for help. For some the change comes about gradually, but for others the onus happens suddenly. 

A common area of concern for adult children who are starting to watch their parents’ age is helping them to manage their financial situation. Learning to cope and manage someone else’s financial house including investments, real estate, cash flow, estate preservation and tax planning can be difficult.

Even if you feel as though your parents are well enough to tend to their own finances, it never hurts to keep a watchful eye.

To help prepare you and your family for managing what's to come, we suggest taking these proactive steps.

Consolidate accounts – If your parents have multiple bank accounts, try to reduce the number of accounts and institutions. This will help both you and your parent(s) stay organized, and could help them to save money in banking fees.

Review statements-If they’re comfortable sharing their financial details, your parents might be able to set you up to receive copies of their statements. Doing this adds an additional level of oversight and will allow you to watch for signs of financial abuse. Make sure to watch for large transactions, unusual money transfers, and unrecognized fees/pre-authorized payments.

Prepare a financial data organizer- Use the organizer to note account numbers and the names of their advisers. You may also choose to include details pertaining to any life insurance policies, information on safety deposit boxes and where to find important legal documents or account passwords.

Your financial organizer should be reviewed annually to make sure everything is up-to-date and that it reflects any changes that have been made. You may also want to consider talking with your parents sooner rather than later to ensure that you have all of the [correct] information, before they start to forget.

Need extra help? Continuum II has put together a personal records organizer just for you. This is a great tool to help you organize your own personal financial plan, or that of a loved one. Find it here.

Review their estate plan-It is important to ensure that wills, powers of attorney, personal directives and similar documents are up-to-date before it is too late. Even if they appear in good standing, it is important to walk through what would actually happen with assets on death, as not everything will pass through the estate and be addressed by a will.

Keeping your eye on your parents estate plan can also help with future fees and tax implications. Even for the most modest estate taxes and probate fees can reach into the tens of thousands, so it's best to plan ahead and take all proactive measures to reduce possible fees.

How can we help? With our team of experienced financial advisors we can provide you and your parents with additional care to help ensure that all of your financial needs are in order. 

Strategically, we can help develop a plan based on each unique situation to map out how your parents may be able to live comfortably in their older years. Similarly, we can identify investment, tax or estate strategies to help preserve your parents’ wealth.

Don't forget to check out Lise Andreana's book "Financial Care for Your Aging Parent" covering key decisions every adult child of an aging parent must make to provide financial support in a loving way to the people who matter most.

Have questions? Contact us today, we are here to help.