People are living longer, and with that comes attendant issues related to eldercare for the growing ranks of seniors. While it’s an increasingly important part of many financial planners’ job, it’s not a particularly happy aspect to deal with.

“Eldercare isn’t most people’s favorite topic,” acknowledged Mary Koffend, co-founder of Accountable Aging Care Management, as she began her presentation on the topic of deconstructing eldercare during a session at the National Association of Personal Financial Advisors’ Spring National Conference this week in Austin, Texas.

Part of that is because it forces us to address our own mortality. The other part is because it can become logistically, financially and emotionally overwhelming.

“It doesn’t matter how smart you are because eldercare is a whole different ballgame,” said Koffend, whose company is a Texas-based provider of professional care management services aimed at older adults and people with disabilities.

She added that financial advisors are in a unique position to help families get connected with the right people in this area. Koffend participated in a tag-team presentation with her husband, Mick Koffend, Accountable Aging’s other co-founder, that provided insights on issues such finding the right resources, dealing with Medicare and how to take the car keys away from aging parents who don’t want to give up the wheel.

They flashed some stats that provided context: 29 percent, or 65 million Americans, provide caregiving assistance (defined as an average of 20 hours a week) to persons age 50 and older. In addition, the average woman can expect to spend 17 years caring for a child and 18 years caring for an elderly parent. Meanwhile, 22 percent of family caregivers say they need help communicating with physicians.

And the situation will only grow more urgent because, as the Koffends noted, people age 100 and older are the fastest-growing population demographic in the U.S.

“If you live to be 75 and you can manage your chronic diseases, the chances of you living to 90 or 95 or 105 are fairly substantial,” Mick Koffend said. “For planners, that situation has some great import because when making financial plans you have to think about the overall health and medical history of your clients."

The following were some of the key points covered during their presentation that financial advisors can use to help their clients deal with eldercare issues:

Where To Go For Help

There are tons of available information available online and in book stores, but finding information that’s tailored to one’s unique situation isn’t always readily available, Mary Koffend said. She noted that the Aging Life Care Association is a resource for finding an aging life care professional. 

She also suggested an outfit called SilverBills LLC, a New Rochelle, N.Y. company that provides bill paying services for seniors.

Medicare

When and what to sign up for regarding Medicare can be confusing, the Koffends said, adding that Medicare Part D (prescription drug coverage) plans can be particularly problematic because each year plans can vary the list of prescription drugs they cover.

As such, Mick Koffend said, automatically signing up for the same Part D plan from the prior year without reading the fine print could result in several thousand dollars in out-of-pocket drug costs.

“Encourage your clients every, or at least every other year, to examine the appropriate [Part D] plan for them given their current circumstances,” he said.

Health-Care Transitions

Transitions, or hand-offs in health care when an individual is transferred from one health facility to another, “are a place where a lot of people die,” Mick Koffend said. “The reason that they’re deadly is that there has been a historic lack of communication among health-care organizations. My theory is that as we’ve got more specialized in providing health-care services, it’s the old story of getting to know more and more about less and less until you know nothing about everything.”

He added that the Affordable Care Act helped improve the communication between health-care facilities to some degree, but that it’s still a major source of concern.

At the very least, Koffend said, financial planners can provide a valuable service to clients by being aware of this situation and bringing it to their attention to help guide families during a health-care transition.

Driving

People equate the ability to drive a vehicle with freedom and independence. Many seniors are unwilling to let go of the keys, and that’s a problem for caregivers who believe the person under their care can no longer safely drive a vehicle.

Mary Koffend related the story of a client they had that entailed bill paying services for a woman with slight dementia. Her daughters decided their mother shouldn’t drive anymore, so they disabled the car and told her she lost the key. But the woman called a locksmith to get a new key and got a mechanic to fix the car.

The main reason she did that, Koffend explained, is the family forgot that driving meant one main thing for this woman: Her social environment centered on going to a nearby cafe everyday where people knew her.

“If they had taken the car away and arranged for her to get to the cafe, there wouldn’t have been an issue [with the car],” Koffend said.

It’s easy to find substitute drivers, Koffend added. She mentioned a program called GoGoGrandparent that family members can set up to enable seniors to use Uber or Lyft without a smartphone. According to the company’s website, its service includes keeping emergency contacts in the loop. 

Value-Add

In summary, the Koffends' presentation aimed to provide advisors in the audience with ways to help their clients navigate the tricky terrain of eldercare and, in the process, provide a value-added service to their practice.

“One of the ways you can provide additional services to clients is to be the objective, third party involved [in the eldercare process],” Mick Koffend said. “You can decide how far and where you want to go with that.”