Yahoo Finance

Aging plans: Top 3 reasons why they are critical

An aging plan is a plan designed to help individuals and families navigate the physical, financial, and emotional complexities of aging before a crisis arises. But why is it so critical to the aging process? Care Right Inc. Founder Annalee Kruger joined Robert "Bob" Powell to break down aging plans, vulnerabilities in elder care, long-term care insurance, the critical role of caregivers, and more in this week's episode of Decoding Retirement. Top 3 things to know about aging plans 1. Family meetings "It actually starts with family meetings to get everybody's perspective and discovery of what's working well, what's not working well," Kruger explains. "You also need to understand current and future care options and care costs so that you can make informed decisions today about future care." 2. Care matrix A care matrix as a comprehensive tool designed to coordinate and organize essential aspects of caregiving for older adults. "Let's have a care matrix done so that we can really make informed decisions where can mom and dad get more bang for their buck," Kruger says. "But also get better quality of care because we can advocate for them because they live closer." 3. Grab and go "We also then also go over the digital grab and go, which is a massively huge checklist of everything that everyone over the age of 18 should have in place, like estate documents, all, all insurance policies, accounts, passwords, business succession plan, VA paperwork," Kruger explains. "All of that needs to be organized and, and in one place." Yahoo Finance's Decoding Retirement is hosted by Robert Powell, and produced by Zach Faulds. Find more episodes of Decoding Retirement at https://finance.yahoo.com/videos/series/decoding-retirement. Thoughts? Questions? Fan mail? Email us at [email protected]. Editor's note: This post was written by Zach Faulds.