Alzheimer Advisor Alzheimer AdvisorCoaching families and their financial advisors to learn the skills necessary to live fruitful lives
34 years ago I started my career in the financial services industry. I set up my first registered investment advisory firm in 1982 (Financial Action Plans,Inc.) and began doing financial planning for my clients.
Advantages and Disadvantages of Prepaid Plans One way to plan in advance for the end of one’s life is to sign a formal contract called a “preneed funeral plan.” With this plan, money to pay for a funeral and/or burial is held in a trust, in an escrow account or paid through an insurance policy…
I’ve discovered a very valuable resource recently, available from the National Institute on Aging through ADEAR, The Alzheimer’s Disease and Referral Center. It’s a guide called Caring for a Person with Alzheimer’s Disease. It is written in a style we can all understand. One of the most helpful sections of the guide relates to the…
Most of our parents don’t really think about how they want their inheritance distributed to their children. Often without much thought, they choose to divide everything up evenly between them, regardless of their children’s situations. In many case,s this can result in anger and hurt feelings for many years after they are gone. Let’s take…
Often it is quite difficult to determine what level of care your parents need, where they can find help from agencies and organizations and what their care is going to cost. A new profession has emerged to help you with these decisions. These professionals are called Aging Life Care Professionals (ALCP). They are health and…
A very interesting article appeared on the front page of The New York Times in 2010. It was about Dr. Desiree Pardi, a leading practitioner of palliative care, one of the fastest growing fields in medicine. Palliative care is the counseling of terminally ill patients regarding their end of life choices. Unfortunately Dr. Pardi contracted terminal…
The Allianz American Legacies Study found that baby boomers and elders view the concepts of legacy and inheritance differently. According to the study, a true legacy is a combination of emotional and financial elements, while an inheritance is purely financial. The difference between an inheritance and a true legacy is clear and distinct, though the…
For the last few years I have been focusing a lot of my time and energy on helping baby boomers begin to communicate in a meaningful way with their elderly parents. As a financial adviser I saw too many situations where families didn’t talk about crucial issues until there was a crisis in the family.…
When we think of seniors, we envision them looking back over their past and savoring the experiences they had when they were younger. We forget that seniors have dreams, too, and often look forward to once-in-a-lifetime opportunities they haven’t been able to accomplish. As the recreational director of the Cheshire House in Connecticut, Sally Smith…
One of my very best friends and clients recently discovered that the breast cancer she had beaten 22 years ago had returned. She informed me that her doctor had discovered that the cancer had spread to her lung, back and bones and was inoperable and untreatable. She wound up in a rehab center after she…
Before my mom passed away, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. When she was first placed in an assisted living center, she was quite alert and had a very sweet, loving disposition. She often referred to the aides and her fellow residents at Harbor Point as “dearie.” When I visited, I would talk to her…