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This week, Rayna Neises, your host, talks with Catherine Hodder Esq. Catherine is an attorney and author of the bestseller, “Estate Planning for the Sandwich Generation: How to Help Your Parents and Protect Your Kids”. She began her law practice in banking, but after helping care for her dad and seeing how estate planning helped her family, she switched her focus when she went back into practice. She now lives in California where she writes articles to help members of the “Sandwich Generation”. Catherine shares the following advice:
- Family members who do not reside in the same location can still play a vital role on the caregiving team.
- ‘Sandwich Generation’ refers to people generally in their thirties and forties who have young children they are still supporting, and they also have aging parents.
- Start with getting your own house in order by obtaining a Financial Power of Attorney and a Medical Power of Attorney.
- Due to HIPPA, you also need Power of Attorney documents, both medical and financial, for children 18 and older.
- Documenting your end-of-life decisions is a gift because you take the burden off your loved ones.
- Once your house is in order, you can then focus on what your parents need to have in place.
- Asking for your parent’s advice on what you should do or for their opinion on situations affecting other friends and relatives is can open the door for further discussions.
- Five necessary conversations to have with your aging parent(s):
- Financial
- Medical
- Living Arrangements When Aging
- End of Life
- Legacy
- Do not have just one conversation, but instead make it ongoing.
- Focus on getting the information that is important to your parent(s) without judging, negotiating, or influencing the situation.
- Create a family binder of information to have everything in one place. Include legal documents, financial information, bank accounts, funeral arrangements, list of passwords, insurance policies, pension information, etc.
