Stacey Andres
Jon Gay

TRANSCRIPT

Jag: Welcome to our weekly podcast, the Art of Wealth Unbroken. We provide our listeners with insights and proven strategies to protect the wealth they’ve built against poor financial planning, investment mistakes, global and national economic conditions, and governmental policies. We discuss the topics in finance, retirements, and politics that are on your mind, giving you certainty in uncertain times.

These discussions can help you make better informed decisions so you can make better financial choices with the wealth you’ve built and are continuing to grow. Our hosts are Stacey Andres, registered financial consultant, and Michael Wallin, certified financial planner. I’m John Ja gay. And for our topic today, guys, we’re talking about planning ahead for when our health takes a turn for the worse.

Michael: Hello, JAG. Hello Stacey. This topic today should not be a farfetched scenario for any one of us. Health related issues and concerns and personal loss, over the last three years, it’s been a major topic, a conversation for so many. , The issues around sudden illnesses like COVID, pandemics, monkeypox, now shingles, dementia, diabetes, heart issues.

They continue to fill the airwavess. I don’t care if it’s TV, radio, or the internet, you can’t spend 30 minutes and not either see an ad or hear a conversation that comes up that’s talking about how illnesses are impacting everybody today. If COVID did anything, it should have made us more aware of the vulnerability that we have as we start to age.

Stacey: So we’re now just a little more than two years into this. And as research continues to be aggregated and as reports come out, they’re showing that individuals with compromised immune systems, those that have chronic illnesses, those that are older. Those are the ones that tend to be most impacted if they contract COVID.

Jag: Yeah, for sure. So what would you say to those that are listening to our show or to their loved ones that will be looked upon to provide them with care? If their health did take a turn?

Michael: I would say that you need to have a personal care plan that addresses financial, family, and care expectations. And really what’s driving this conversation and reason why Stacey and I really look at building out personal care plans for our clients.

It came from one of my clients, Miss Betty. About a year and a half ago, we were sitting here in my office. She came in, we were in the conference room, JAG, and Miss Betty is 84 years old and has been a client of mine for a little more than 10 years. In that conversation, I could start seeing just some things being a little bit off the conversation.

She wasn’t as crisp, as sharp in some of the conversation, remembering some of the facts and staying on course of some of the dialogue that we were having. And so I just posed a question to her. I said Miss Betty, one thing that we haven’t really addressed here is if your health took a turn for the worse, what is your plan? Where are you going to get care? 

And she just lit up and she was so excited and she said, oh, I’ve already taken care of this. My daughter is going to come and take care of me. And I said again, remember, I’ve been her advisor for 10 years. She’s never mentioned a daughter. So I was like tell me a little bit about her.

I’m not familiar with your daughter. I’ve not had the pleasure of meeting her. And she said, oh my daughter, she lives in Los Angeles. That’s why you haven’t met. And I was like, oh how long has she lived out there? Her daughter moved to Los Angeles in the mid eighties, took a job out there. And through the course of that dialogue, I asked her, I said she went out there to work.

She’s been out there that long. She said, oh yes, she raised her family. Her children are out there and she just became a new grandmother. And so she’s decided to retire. And I said, oh, so talking about your plan, when’s the last time y’all sat down and had a discussion about if your health started deteriorating and she was gonna come here. She said, oh, we discussed that before she ever left.

Jag: 30 40 years ago.

Michael: Yeah. 40 years ago she had that discussion and in Miss Betty’s mind, she locked that in and she said, okay, done, taken care of, check the box. My daughter is going to come and take care of me. And so just reengage some of the points she brought up, I said, so she’s moved out there nearly 40 years ago.

She’s also retired there. Her children live there, your grandchildren, your now great grandchildren are going to be raised there. I said, now, is she gonna come here or are you going to go there? Miss Betty said very determined on this. She said, Oh, no she’s coming here. I am not moving to Los Angeles.

Jag: Oh, I see where this is going. 

Michael: So that’s where we start getting into some issues where we’re not having recent and meaningful conversations around a personal care plan.

Stacey: Yeah. This really is one of the most important areas of planning that we both provide. It helps our clients and it benefits their loved ones.

So let’s first as we get into this, define what is personal care planning? Personal care planning really begins with open communication with family members, with others, whoever that might be, who will assume at some point, the role of caregiver or caregivers in your life, in the event that your health deteriorates to the point that you can no longer take care of yourself, lose one of the, two of the activities of daily living, or you become completely incapacitated.

And what it allows us to,do, is really openly and meaningfully address that phase between the end of life and mortality. It’s one of the most important conversations a family’s ever gonna have, and this conversation can provide peace of mind to the aging spouse, to the children of the family. And especially to those that are the anticipated caregivers for that individual in the future, if an event would occur, 

Jag: Stacey mentioned the word mortality, nobody wants to think about their own mortality. So in terms of thinking about that, and then coming up with a plan, it sounds like a really tough conversation emotionally for all parties involved to. 

Stacey: Jag, it really is. It’s not something that anybody wants to talk about, but we all know that we are gonna come to an end of life at some point.

But for many, that conversation includes a lot of tears. There’s hugs. People don’t wanna admit it. They deny that they’re gonna need care. They dismiss it and push it off. But if a client and their loved ones really stay the course, it’s going to eliminate the result of procrastination and ultimately the reality of circumstances in the future.

Jag: All right, let’s take a quick break and we’ll come back and discuss where asking better questions and changing our own narrative can drive us to achieving our long range goals. 

At Optivise Advisory Services, they combine the expertise of their seasoned professionals in financial planning, tax legal and investments to assist their clients in achieving the lifestyle they’ve always dreamed of, through their proprietary info right system. They address each of the 10 pillars in their planning process: investment, retirement, income tax, social security, education, healthcare, personal care, charitable, legal, and wealth transfer. Their comprehensive approach brings certainty in uncertain times to receive your free arc of life report.

You can visit the website. ArtofWealthunbroken.com or call (855) 378-1806. The website and phone number will be in our show notes. Artofwealthunbroken.com or (855) 378-1806. The Arc of Life report will show you how each of the 10 pillars in the Info Right process connects together to form your own unique, personal financial canvas.

Michael’s wearing the Life Arc plan polo. As we record this right now. 

Michael: Yeah, Stacey and Jga, we do focus as one of our main pillars, the personal care planning. And step one of setting up that personal care plan is to facilitate a family meeting. And this is one of the things that we train on.

We advise those that are working in our office, something that Stacey and I do consistently is assisting our clients as moderators. In facilitating their family meetings in discussions and having honest conversations with realistic expectations and those words, aren’t just lofty words. It’s honest conversations with realistic expectations, there’s life transitions and financial challenges that have to be faced.

In the years ahead and having this meaningful discussion about these matters are difficult and often emotional for both the parent and the caregiver, as Stacey said, and it requires a balanced approach of both empathy and pragmatism. One of the things that the children or the caregiver has to understand is yes, there is a responsibility be putting on you.

But when you’re talking about the end of life and really looking at how that impacts that person. You have to have some empathy and it has to be pragmatic in your discussions. 

Stacey: Mike, one of the biggest obstacles that we have to address is the notion that the need for care is it’s never gonna happen to me. Young, healthy invincible. And this is the most common response to questions regarding uncomfortable life events, nearly 45 million Americans provide care for family members or friends. 34 million of those caregivers are 50 years of age or older. And when we look at the statistics of those that are gonna need some form of long-term care, It’s more than 50%.

Jag: Those numbers really are staggering Stacey. And we talk about the sandwich generation, that generation of folks who are taking care of their parents and then sometimes their kids as well. And it’s really tough. How do those individuals handle the balance between providing care and providing for their own family’s needs like working to provide income kids in school, daily stuff, et 

cetera.

Michael: Again, Jag, your points are spot on and this is the reason why we need a personal care plan. It’s critical to properly address all elements of the loss of health and eliminate assumptions, just like Miss Betty. She had those assumptions that her daughter was gonna come and take care of her. And I’m sure that her daughter living out in Los Angeles with her life the way it is today, had the assumption that in the event that mom’s life took a turn then we’ll bring her to Los Angeles.

But those assumptions are not a plan of action. And your question reminded me of a study conducted by Evercare that found of those cared for 45% live with the caregiver. That means that 45% of the people needing care moves in with the caregiver. That person is gonna provide the assistance and be responsible for them.

44% live nearby. So it could be a person that still lives in a community. They have an alpha child that stayed in their own community and they can drop in and visit with them, daily or multiple times a week and 11% live more than two hours away with the amount of time required to provide for quality care.

And that averages about 35 hours a week. Most caregivers, 75% of whom are female, are not paid. So when you’re talking about working to provide income in two income households, and all of a sudden, now the female is going to step out of the workforce, 75% of the time and start becoming the caregiver, providing 35 hours a week.

That is detrimental to the sandwich generation, but it is also impactful because it’s not always the daughter many times. It’s the daughter-in-law. 

Stacey: Right now we’re having those conversations with my in-laws and talking about where they’re gonna live as they’re starting to face some health challenges.

But we’re ahead of the curve, but many times one’s health conditions literally can change in a heartbeat. They don’t have the time to plan or they haven’t taken the time to in the past to plan. And step two of building a personal care plan is to prepare a plan that is going to address the real solutions of those following questions.

First, will you continue to live independently or are you gonna move in with the care. 

Jag: Yeah, that question in particular sounds like the answer could be progressive or ever evolving in nature. 

Michael: In many cases, it is. If the health declines slowly over a period of time, then the care needed would increase proportionally.

But one of the things that really has to be considered will you live independently? Will you move in with a caregiver? For many individuals that comes down to what is the environment? I have another client that I’ve been able to assist with that has young children and their mother is needing care today. The mother’s environment is she lives in a rural area.

It’s a very quiet serene area. There’s a lot of peacefulness around it. My client happens to have young children. They have a very active household. Moving mom in, or just assuming that is the right objective or right goal in this may a misunderstanding. It could be something that is not really gonna meet the needs.

You’re moving her into an environment that could cause more detriment to her health. You go from a quiet serene environment to young children or teenagers, loud noises, unrest that may not be the right environment. Those issues have to be discussed. 

Stacey: Second thing that needs to be considered when moving in with the caregiver is what arrangements are going to need to be made ?Many forget to think about the living conditions and how that impacts both the caregiver and the one that is being cared for.

And finally, will there be one or multiple caregivers if more than one, how are you going to divide the duties? To mitigate family issues. 

Michael: And all of those are discussion points that are critical when you’re building a personal care plan. And I would just say, if you don’t have one, this is just as important as getting your legal documents done.

You need to have that family discussion. And if you haven’t got to that point yet, Life Arc plan can be a great platform. We’ll offer that as a free service as you share that with everyone JAG. But if you don’t have this plan, don’t procrastinate. Give Stacey and I a call and let us help address this for you.

Jag: I’ll tell you that this conversation today has really got my brain going and thinking about stuff going on in my personal life with my family as well. It is really important. And to the point you made earlier, it could change gradually over time or, no pun intended, it could change in a heartbeat.

If you wanna talk to Stacey and Michael at Optivise about this stuff or anything related to your financial future, your overall plan, you can come talk to them by visiting our website, art of wealth, unbroken.com. Art of wealth, unbroken.com, where you can give the guys a call (855) 378-1806. (855) 378-1806

Really important stuff, as we said, gentlemen, good to talk to you and we’ll talk again next week. 

Michael: Thanks Jag. 

Stacey: Thanks Mike.