“Serving Families and Individuals throughout Adelaide South Australia and surrounding areas”
Are you between age 40 and 55? Research shows that you are in your peak earning years. And that is a very good thing.
Chances are good that you have some expensive life events going on right now, unlike when you were among the married couples without children. Do you have children who are university-bound or already there? Is there a wedding scheduled (or one or more down the road)?
Perhaps you are beginning to help your aging parents with personal, health care and financial responsibilities. What is the Sandwich Generation? It’s a generation of people, typically in their thirties or forties, responsible both for bringing up their own children and for the care of their ageing parents.
I know you may be busy and you’re likely very tired. Nevertheless, this would be a good time to create (or revisit and update) your estate plan and make sure your adult children and parents have their legal ducks-in-a-row, too.
Unfortunately, many married couples mistakenly believe that they can make personal, health care and financial decisions for one another should either spouse become legally incapacitated due to a serious injury or illness. But that’s only partially true.
Without proper estate planning to appoint your spouse as the incapacity decision-maker, he or she will not have full legal authority to make all of the important decisions that may need to be made for you.
For example:
- privacy and confidentiality laws will bar access to your medical records;
- the ability to consult with your attending physician;
- banking & financial laws limit control over personal finances;
- superannuation regulations do not permit spouses automatic access to information or funds.
Unless you legally appoint the decision-maker of your own selection in advance through proper estate planning, then a court or tribunal will select one for you if the need arises. While they might appoint your spouse, the process to accomplish this is time-consuming, expensive, frustrating, intimidating, and it discloses your private personal and financial information to the public record and is a real hassle for you and your spouse.
Did you know that in the absence of proper estate planning, your assets may be distributed after death based on “one-size-fits-all” state laws written for people who do not have their own estate plan? Of course, this impersonal estate plan written by state lawmakers probably will not reflect your own unique circumstances and objectives for your spouse and assets.
Fortunately, we can help you avoid disaster and replace that impersonal, state-written, one-size-fits-all estate plan with one we design together for your unique circumstances and objectives. We can help you coordinate the beneficiary nominations on your life insurance and superannuation with your estate plan to avoid unpleasant, unintended consequences.
When it comes to your children, great care should be given to protect any inheritance both for them and from them. For starters, wealth representing a lifetime of your hard work and thrift can be squandered in very short order. In addition to squandering, an inheritance can quickly vanish through divorces, lawsuits and bankruptcies.
Fortunately, with proper estate planning, you can provide an inheritance that is protected for and even from your own children. Remember, two things you cannot choose in life are your own parents and the spouses of your children.
Are your parents already in or considering a transition to some form of long-term care? If yes, have you noticed how expensive the continuum of care is? From in-home assistance to assisted living to skilled nursing the expenses can destroy savings and investments created over a lifetime of hard work.
Your peak earning years are the perfect time to work-out and lock-in a long-term plan for your later years while you are still able to do so physically and mentally.
There is a 70% risk of needing long-term care once you reach age 65. Curiously, 70% of people think they will not be among those 70% needing care (i.e., denial) and 70% of people think Medicare or Centrelink will pay for it (i.e., ignorance)! You do not want to be in that 70% who are in denial, ignorant or both.
If you need assistance with the activities of daily living (e.g., eating, bathing, dressing), then you may want to hire a professional to take care of them instead of relying on your children.
When you are ready for help with your long-term care planning through appropriate insurance, then we can help you find that, as well.
Fortunately, we can help you avoid disaster and replace that impersonal, state-written, one-size-fits-all estate plan with one that we design together to meet your unique circumstances and objectives. We can help you coordinate the beneficiary nominations on your life insurance and superannuation plans with your estate plan to avoid unpleasant, unintended consequences.