Caregiving Tips

By: Scott Van Den Berg, CFP®, ChFC®, CEPA®, AIF®, CRPS®, CMFC®, AWMA®

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Are you concerned about caregiving for yourself or a loved one? Here are some tips to help you plan and prepare.

Talk with your loved ones about their values and expectations:

Create/update estate plan, including medical and durable power of attorney, living will/directive to physicians, DNR, HIPAA authorizations, will/trust, and 5 wishes
Discuss how to handle physical restrictions/limits, such as inability to drive, cook meals, personal hygiene, etc.

Assemble a network that can help provide care:

Help facilitate social activities or look into where to get social time
Minor support people: cleaning service, meal delivery, Uber/Lyft/car service, etc.
Major support people: caregivers, paid or family/friends

Become financially organized and informed:

Collect financial information, bank accounts, investments, credit cards, debt, insurance, etc.
Ask/give a key to their safety deposit box and access to important documents
Set up password manager with additional user access for online financial accounts, emails, social media, etc.
Set up automatic payments/direct deposits where available and note which bills/payments are manual
Run credit reports with the major bureaus to ensure that all liabilities are accounted for

Become informed about medical issues:

Review current insurance coverage, including Medicare benefits and consider adding a Medigap policy
Bring/join loved ones to doctors to get acquainted with care team as well as get a full understanding of medical needs and future prognosis
Reach out to pharmacist to guard against negative medication interactions resulting from prescriptions from multiple doctors
Create/update medical document/folder, listing current doctors, medications, and insurance info

Tips for successful life and financial balance:

For those needing care:

Make plans now and get things in order to ensure your wants/needs are understood
Avoid overburdening loved ones by creating an adequate care team
Create wealth plan to evaluate and compare what kind of care you can afford (elder care facilities, in home care, etc.)

For caregivers:

Create a wealth plan to evaluate your ability to financially support loved ones and their caregiving needs
Take time for yourself

How Century Management Can Help:

Produce customized wealth plans for individuals and the larger family unit
Organize your own personal financial website, "Century Management Solutions Center", where you can aggregate investments, bank accounts, credit cards, other financial accounts, insurance, etc. in one place
Take advantage of Solutions Center's Vault, a secure, online, storage site, where you can store/access important documents at a moment's notice
Loved ones and other professionals can be granted access to Solutions Center when the time is right

Call Scott Van Den Berg, or your Wealth Advisor, at Century Management today to see how wealth planning and Solutions Center may work for you and your loved ones.

Disclosures: Century Management ("CM") is an independently registered investment adviser with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Registration does not imply a certain level of skill or training. CM is also registered as a Portfolio Manager in the Province of Ontario. The opinions expressed and material provided are for general information. Please consult legal or tax professionals for specific information regarding your individual situation. A full description of our Firm’s business practices, including our Firm’s investment management services, wealth plans and advisory fees, are supplied in our Form ADV Part 2A and/or Form CRS which is available on our website, www.centman.com, or by calling 512-329-0050.