After years of living and working in the Wilmington area in the real estate industry, I specialize in relocating folks to Wilmington. When Im not working in town, I am likely on the road visiting friends and family around the country. Do you feel like your life is in several different places right now too? Well, I see you! Those of us who travel to take care of parents are in a growing group of the population called “The Sandwich Generation.” We are caring for aging parents all while holding down careers, homes and even caring for children. 

It’s a lot, but you don’t have to do it alone.

Today I wanted to share with you some tips for getting your parent’s financial ducks in a row as they age. I’ve been involved in too many real estate deals where the parents and children are not on the same page. Worse, sometimes the parents pass on and leave their children with many unanswered questions about finances and assets. 

Here are my top tips for setting up your aging parents for success:

Conversation about the future

At some point, you will need to have the tough conversations with your parents about their future. Even though these conversations can be awkward or even intense, the conversation must happen.

Talk to parents about not only what they are physically capable of now, but what the future looks like for them in their community or current home. Should they consider downsizing? Relocating to be closer to children or their family support system? Do they have plans for assisted living care in the future?

Signing over power

Once your parents are ready, I highly recommend adding one of their children onto their bank accounts and assigning a child (or multiple) as a power of attorney. If parents fall ill or even pass, this will make the next steps much more approachable. Of course, these decisions can only come after important conversations and lots of mutual trust. 

Set up a living trust

Before you let your parents change the ownership of their home (or any of their assets) over to you, consider establishing a living trust. A living trust in North Carolina allows your assets to transfer ownership without all the expenses and time of probate. This helps you avoid the costs of an executor, attorney and court fees. 

This article shares more about the differences of a will and a living trust.

Get all the passwords 

Do yourself a huge favor now and collect all the important passwords from your parents. Banks, insurance, health insurance, social media — all of it. Find a safe place to store them (maybe a shared Google document?) where you can all have access should something happen. 

Be their tech support

In the tech world with aging parents, you may find this is where you parent the parents. Let them lean on you for tech support. Be sure to inform parents when you’ve seen phishing scams on email and social media. This way, they are trained in what to watch out for. 

You can also enlist tech to help YOU! Consider setting up doorbell security cameras or even in-house security cameras that you and siblings have access to. If you are worried about your parent’s safety or even falls, there are plenty of gadgets you can set up around their home that could help alert you and siblings to this. Just be mindful of keeping their privacy in-tact. 

Concierge services

I recently used a concierge service to get my parents all set up with a fridge full of groceries after moving to their new home. You can also utilize grocery delivery, ride sharing programs, and caterers who can stock their fridge with a week of meals. 

Want to learn about how to relocate your parents to Wilmington? I’ve helped many families with this and would love to help you too! Learn more about connecting with me here.