By Dolly Wilkerson
Have you jumped the fence into Middle Age? We may grow wiser with years thanks to lessons we learn, but maybe not as quickly as we used to. Words and names flow to the tip of the tongue and then evaporate there at the most embarrassing moments. It’s frustrating and we all suffer from it, some more then others. A recent study called “Age of Reason” states that our mental sweet spot occurs at the average age of 53.
Preparing for retirement is only a small part of the picture. You have to prepare for the unfortunate reality that at some point, your thinking is going to diminish and your ability to make sound decisions that affect you and your family will also suffer. It is only common sense that you begin the planning early and revisit it often.
Four steps that are recommended include:
- Get your documents together: starting with a durable power of attorney (POA). Other documents should include an up to date will, health care POA, and current beneficiary forms just to name a few.
- Know someone who can give you a second opinion: This could be a responsible adult child, a capable friend you’ve known for a long time, a trusted financial adviser, or an elder law attorney specializing in these matters.
- Read the fine print: make sure the annuity or the financial instrument you are considering purchasing actually covers the long term care you are interested in. In a recent case in Westwood, NJ a daughter, whose father suffered from Alzheimer’s and was living in an assisted living facility tried to exercise the waiver on the annuity he owned. The insurance company turned her down citing that it waived fees only for those living in “nursing homes”.
- Give your adviser a back door way of protecting you: Most advisers and elder law attorneys will ask for an “incapacity letter”. It allows the professional to alert a designated person if mental decline becomes apparent in the normal course of doing business.
The toughest part of all is knowing when to sound the alarm. Linda Patchett of Chapel Hill, NC, gets it right when she says “Within each person rages the tension between maintaining independence and self-hood and recognizing deficits”. Age 60, she says, is “a very good time to bring the issues of aging into sharper focus.”
Ref: AARP Magazine, January-February 2012, “Your Money / Financially Speaking / Sound the alarm if you’re not as mentally sharp as you once were”
