New Study Reveals Difference in Parents and Children’s Expectations Regarding Late-in-Life Money Management
If your parents are getting up in years, you probably know that you should sit down with them and discuss expectations regarding long-term care and estate planning, but it can be difficult to find the right time or place to have this conversation. It can be hard to see how important it is to discuss the future in this way until it is already too late, and one or both parents are incapacitated by injury or illness. A recent study conducted by Fidelity Investments finds that the majority of aging parents have not had detailed conversations with their children about their desires for their long-term care, financial planning, or money management as they age.
The Fidelity Investments Family & Finance Study asked both an older parent and one of their adult children a number of questions on such issues as late-in-life care and retirement income. Overall, the study found that about 40% of parents and children had different expectations on the roles those children should play in their parents’ money management and planning. For example, while 90% of parents believed that it would not be acceptable to become dependent financially on their children, 25% of children planned to support their parents financially. While nearly 70% of parents assert that they’ve discussed their estate plan with their kids, roughly 50% of adult children report that an estate planning conversation has never occurred. Dishearteningly, nearly half of all parents said they haven’t discussed their long-term care with their children in detail, and 23% haven’t discussed this subject with their children at all.
If you feel overwhelmed or unequipped to have these conversations alone with your parents, help is available. An experienced Alabama estate planning attorney can walk you through the important topics to cover in a conversation about financial planning for someone in their golden years, and can even create a document which lays out the parents’ desires for their end-of-life care, to offer the peace of mind of knowing that their children understand and will honor their desires.
