Aging – Protections for you

Protecting Yourself as You Get On in Years

Money Matters Radio – Estate Planning Checklist

By: Martin M. Shenkman, Esq.

Introduction/Overview: Aging and declining health affects us all. What affirmative steps can you take now to protect yourself as time goes on?

Consider the following items?

√ Set a Pattern: You test drive a car. Test drive your overall planning. Work with advisers you are comfortable with. Develop a consistent investment plan and modify it over time. Create relationships with an attorney, CPA and other advisers. This creates a pattern so that if in the future health or age issues begin to make it difficult for you to handle your affairs you’ve accomplished two really important things: 1) you have a working system, you only have to tweak it; and 2) you’ve created and reconfirmed a pattern of what you want so others, like agents and executors, will have a history to follow.

√ Simplify – use the KISS Principal: The fewer accounts, the less paperwork, the more automated, the simpler the better to keep you in control .

√ Social Work Interview: As you or a loved one age or experience health declines have a geriatric consultant or qualified social worker interview you in your home and provide a written plan. Provide this plan to investment adviser, CPA and estate planner so they can be sure your planning is consistent. Consider a mechanism to have an independent geriatric consultant interview periodically, perhaps annually or quarterly in the beginning and then quarterly or even monthly in the future, and issue a report. This will assure that someone independent is checking on you. Trustees and agents may not have the expertise to identify elder abuse and other issues. Protect yourself. It is simple and inexpensive.

√ Power of Attorney: Set up a power of attorney so someone can manage your assets as you age, but also be sure there is someone independent monitoring or watching the agent. This could be a bookkeeper that works for you or your accountant entering all transactions on computer and generating a monthly report. Theft or misuse of assets will become apparent, but if no one is looking you may not know.