Aged Care Financial Advice
When to start the aged care conversation?
No-one likes to talk about getting old, but at what age should you start thinking about your aged care needs? The answer is simple - any age is a good time. Regardless of whether you are pre-retirement, in your early retirement years or well into retirement, this is an essential conversation that will ensure future stability and peace of mind.
We recommend starting this conversation with your parents while they are still healthy. This discussion is not always easy but will ultimately give your parents the opportunity to consider what is important for them and give you a sense of direction if decisions need to be made on behalf of your parents in the future.
Don’t accidentally fall into either of these traps:
1. Leaving it too late to have the conversation - once Mum or Dad can’t return home from the hospital, you’re in crisis mode. This is not the best time to be making life-changing decisions for anyone.
2. Thinking it will never happen - unfortunately the statistics say otherwise. On average, we can expect to live 17-25% of our retirement with a profound disability that may threaten our ability to live independently without care support. With those odds, you at least want to have a quality conversation about the options for aged care and importantly, how you would pay for it.
We're here to help
Making an informed decision about aged care is incredibly important. Making the wrong decision can have far-reaching consequences for the whole family. When aged care decisions go badly, the stress can lead to family conflicts.
However, not all advice is good advice. Aged care financial advice is a specialist area. The rules change constantly, as do the available strategies. You don’t need extra stress wondering if you’ve received quality advice!
At Middleton Financial Planning we specialise in aged care advice and have the experience to help you to plan for current or future needs.
As a starting point, we offer an obligation-free 30-minute phone appointment, where we can answer all of your questions and provide general aged care financial advice.
