The newsfeeds are full of horrific stories about residents in nursing homes being mistreated, ignored, threatened, assaulted and abused.
Another Royal Commission is taking evidence around Australia. Between 6 per cent and 20% of elderly Australians are abused by someone they trust according to recent research.
That won’t happen in my family
Are you sure about that? Even wealthy celebrities are not immune against elder financial abuse.
Estate planning is not solely about preparing a Will, and with progressive illnesses you need to think about estate planning as planning for the future stages of your disease as it progresses.
The life planning portion of estate planning can be very different for a person with a progressive illness than a person without.
Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Muscular Dystrophy, Multiple Sclerosis, Macular Degeneration: there are dozens of illnesses that are progressive and (so far) incurable. They require special care from an estate planning perspective.
Joint accounts with other people are a common method for ageing persons seeking help with money management, but this can cause problems.
Joint Tenancy is used often by couples as a means of owning shared assets. There are some good reasons to do this, but there are also some drawbacks.
Joint accounts are often referred to as a “poor man’s Will” because they allow an individual to give assets to another upon death without going through the probate process. Some people have the perception from hearing horror stories that probate will consume the entire estate.
The longer we live, the better our scientists & doctors will become at improving our life-expectancies. Australia now has one of the highest life expectancies in the world (higher even than USA and UK). As a result we can expect to live longer but we must also expect to require increasing amounts of assistance in our later years.
We are likely to rely upon an increasing amount of care towards the end of our lives, and this care will be provided by people who will be in a position to influence us regarding testamentary gifts.
The role of carer can be quite an intimate one. Confidences can be shared; friendships are established. It becomes a “trust” relationship. However the potential inequality in the relationship (the reliance that is necessarily placed upon the stronger person by the weaker person in the relationship) creates a ready climate for exploitation.