REMASTERED (2014): Long-Term Elder Care & Social Security Disability | What Families Must Prepare For

0:05 I can tell you that I am very proud of the fact that I am knocking on forty five years of age. And one of the things that I joke with different people about is there are certain things that people don't tell you about as you get older, meaning you know, when you're growing up, no one tells you about you know, you hear that. What do you hear when you grow up? Go to high school, you graduate, you either join the military, get a job, or go to college. You end up meeting somebody special, you get married, and then you have kids, You work a job for twenty years, and then you ride off into the sunset.

0:42 But people don't fill in the blanks about the other things. And when you say, well, what do you mean by other things? I'm an age now where I am now getting a lot of questions from people, not only people here on you know it's in the cyber world, but I'm also getting a lot of calls from family and friends about their parents. Is most of us will have to probably take care of a loved one at some point in time, and it's kind of unnerving because no one really prepares you for what that entails. Because by the time you get involved in it. It's usually to the point where you're having to jump in there and switch your feet running. Think about it. No one expects to have to take care of their loved ones, but

1:23 usually it happens either abruptly or you know what's happening, but you just haven't really physically planned for it. Well, why do I say this is important? Because there's going to be a few things that you need to keep in mind when you're addressing what you need to do to take care of your loved ones. First of all, I know this is going to sound silly, but find out if there's a will. Do it now while the person has the ability to articulate the things that you need.

1:50 Don't wait until you're freaking out and you're trying to figure it out. Ask do they have a will. If they do have a will, is there a healthcare surrogate or any information in there that talks about their about basically what happens if something happens to them traumatically. So many times people have no clue. And this is a hard conversation, but you've gotta have it. So many times people don't have a clue what the wishes of their loved ones are if something traumatic happens to them and they have to be put on life support. Does the person want to be on life support? Do they not want to be on life support? If they're in a vegetative state, how long should they be kept in that?

2:32 Sometimes these documents we call a healthcare directive directs you to be able to tell healthcare providers what should be done in the event of that person's incapacity. Power of attorney, Do you have a document that allows you to make decisions on behalf of your loved one? And that's tough if the person hasn't have the capacity to sign that bad boy, And every state is a little different, Okay.

3:02 You want to find out what you need for a power of attorney because at some point you may have to make decisions about things like bills, groceries, insurance, you know, living experience, health, you know, living conditions, things of that nature, and those are the things that you need to be aware of. Find out about banks. You need to know where their money is going because sometimes in the instances where the individual is in their sixties or seventies and so forth, they have banks and money is coming in there.

3:31 And if the person is at a point where you're concerned that they can't handle their financial expenses anymore. I try to be funny, you might want to freak out because if they're not even paying their bills, but they have the money and you have no way of knowing, how are you going to be able to track the finances to make sure that bills are getting taken care of, that they're doing what they're disposed to do in terms of buying food and so forth. Imagine a circumstance where your loved one says they don't have any money and the lights getting turned off and the utility is turned off.

4:02 But then you go to the bank and you find out that they have plenty of money in the bank. It's just that they keep forgetting to pay the bill. You want to make sure you check that also social Security. This is where it becomes a little trickier. At some particular point, you may need to go in with your loved one and find out if that individual may need what I call a representative paying because if your loved one isn't a point where they're not physically or more importantly, mentally able to handle their finance and financial wellbeing, you want to be able to ensure that that money is being used for their benefit. Also, also, and this is usually what happens, a lot of moneys are being co mingled Social Security, the federal government and their brilliance, which

4:48 I really applauded on, this has an anti garnishment provision. So let's say that your mother or your father, your loved one, that all they're getting in Social Security, they haven't been paying their bills. They only have one bank account, and all of a sudden, some creditor tries to go in and lock down that bank account and garnish those those monies. There is a federal statute that specifically prohibits that.

5:14 So you want to know if that's happening. You don't want to be surprised and so forth and say, what happened? They put a lock on the money, can't do it. It's federal funds. So you want to make sure you address all those things from the get go. Pay close attention to the bills. You want to keep track of all of these things. I'm sharing this with you because quite frankly, I don't care if you're in your twenties, your thirties, forties, or fifties, or even your sixties at some point, just like the natural circle of life, as you took care of your children in their birth, you're gonna also have to take care of your loved one and your children going towards the end of their life, and so they're gonna need you to be able to

5:54 step in and fully understand their circumstances. Trust me, there's nothing more disconcern and being in a situation where, trust me, I look at my mom and my dad, my family members, and they're my heroes. And when you start seeing your loved ones not being able to function the way they normally used to, it's heartbreaking. But you know what's more heartbreaking is that if their world crumbles around them and you are in the you have no clue what to do to fix it. You are in the best position to make sure that their last years can transition out smoothly.

6:26 Make sure you transition into that preparation as smoothly as possible so that you're not freaking out trying to figure out things at the last minute.