Helping Your Parents With Elderly Estate PlanningMost elderly people have in place plans that cover the distribution of their assets during medical emergencies, disabilities, or even on their death. At the same time, you, as a responsible son of loving parents can always help them in elderly estate planning. It is indeed most satisfying for you that you can help your elderly parents plan how to spend their lifetime savings and accumulated assets efficiently. See, you need to know much about your parents' financial affairs and if possible about their will to help in the planning aspect. You need to be closely involved in caring for your parents' health care. Elderly parents over the age of 65 years need lot more health care services than do young people. Depending upon the financial health of your parents' savings and accumulated assets, they need to earmark a certain sum out of their estate money towards Medicare. In case their financial health is not sound or if they are blind or disabled, they need to still earmark a certain sum out of their meager estate money towards repayment of the Medicaid facility that they can then be entitled to. You need to understand that there is no free lunch in this world. The federal government is entitled to recover from most elderly citizens the amount the state spends on them towards Medicaid. Therefore, proper planning is required in the optimum and proportionate distribution of estate assets and other financial resources towards wise investment in the health care of your parents. The same attention is required in planning their life insurance needs, the estate taxes as also their funeral costs out of the estate assets. One tool that your parents have at their disposal is a living trust to cover all these financial requirements. The advantage of a living trust over a will lies in lower costs and privacy. However, this translates into the transfer of assets and beneficiary designations having to be made during the lifetime of your parents. However, all assets cannot be covered by a living trust. Assets such as 401(k) plans and IRAs (Individual Retirement Accounts) are generally excluded. In case your parents are incapacitated in old age, these assets need to be managed by a reliable, honest, and competent person. Such a person vested with a properly limited power of attorney for money matters can help manage these assets. Proper tax management vis-à-vis the estate can be done by hiring the services of an experienced attorney. This will help retain the maximum assets for beneficiaries while paying the minimum possible taxes to the state exchequer. Although your parents know that you can easily help them out of your own income, it is important you refrain from this. This is because proper elderly estate planning involves the dignity of parents as an important factor. |