According to the AICPA’s most recent trends report, nearly three-quarters of all current CPAs will likely be retiring within 15 years. It’s a statistic that puts the CPA shortage in stark relief, but it also highlights another pressing need: long-term care for aging professionals. Many people prefer not to think about needing care in their older years, but as people continue to live longer, the likelihood increases that many of us will need assistance at some point in our lives.
Taking the time to discuss caregiving with your loved ones can allow you to make sure everyone knows what your preferred strategy for care might be, should you need future help with everyday tasks. Being open with your loved ones about how you’d like to receive care and who you want to provide it can ensure that your family will know what steps to take should you end up needing it.
Here, we’ll take a closer look at why planning for long-term care needs in advance is so critical, common missteps to avoid in care planning, and how you can ensure a smooth caregiving journey for yourself and your family members.
Why Planning Ahead for Family Caregiving Matters
Family caregivers play an important role in our society. There are currently 63 million family caregivers in the U.S., marking a 50% increase over the last decade. In fact, one in four American adults will likely care for an aging family member. While lifespans increase, so too do complex medical needs, and that means many of these caregivers are providing specialized medical care, like giving injections or operating medical equipment. Without training and adequate caregiver support, this can become an enormous burden for family members. In fact, caregivers spend an average of 27 hours each week providing care, and 24 percent of caregivers provide 40 or more hours per week.1
Women are especially impacted by caregiving; they make up 61 percent of all caregivers.1 In order to provide care, women are more likely to work less, pass up a promotion, take a leave of absence, or quit a job. Thus, the financial impact on women can be greater; being a caregiver often means that they earn less and save less for retirement.
You may think it makes more sense to choose other types of long-term care, like assisted living, nursing home care, or adult daycare. However, the costs of elder care outside of family caregiving can be prohibitive. In-home care usually surpasses $75,000 annually, and residential care facilities can easily exceed $125,000. For older adults who do not want to place so much responsibility on their grown children or other relatives, they can feel caught between a rock and a hard place.
It’s common to hope that your family will be able to take care of you as you age, but it isn’t always financially or physically feasible. This is why it is so important to begin discussing your wishes and expectations for your future care before you need it. This way, you’ll be able to determine how family members can best support you, and what you can do to ensure they’re prepared. Many solutions that can help provide coverage for this type of care, like long-term care insurance policies, can help alleviate the financial burden of caregiving.
Common Financial Mistakes Family Caregivers Regret
If you have or have had aging parents, you likely already understand how complicated it can be to make healthcare decisions as they age. Now you’ve reached an age where you’re considering how your own adult children or other loved ones will help you manage your future care needs. Here are some of the pitfalls you and your family members will want to avoid:
- Relying on Medicare or Medicaid: These government programs can offer assistance with long-term care in certain situations, but generally don’t offer enough support to fully cover expenses. Medicare does not cover most long-term care, with the exception of 100 days of qualifying skilled nursing care. Medicaid can provide financial support for family caregivers, but only in circumstances of very low income and assets.
- Underestimating the cost and time for care: Aging adults may not have realized how long-term care would impact their finances, including personal assets and retirement. Caregivers might underestimate the time and effort required even for relatively light care needs and activities of daily living.
- Putting off awkward discussions: Many older adults are reluctant to talk about estate planning or end-of-life care, as it brings those uncomfortable realities closer to home. However, open, honest, and early communication is key to having appropriate support in place.
- Caregiver self-neglect: Many family caregivers say they have made the mistake of using their own savings or have taken on additional debt to care for a loved one. This can lead to them delaying their own retirement, taking leave from work, or forgoing self-care, which can impact their financial, physical, or mental well-being and lead to more costs down the road.
- Not exploring long-term care insurance: Many individuals believe they don’t need or can’t afford LTCI, but having this type of insurance coverage can help aging adults remain in their own home longer while they receive care from family members, and eventually provide coverage if and when they transition into facility-based care.
No matter how you decide to prepare for your future care needs, what’s important is that you communicate openly with your loved ones about your intentions, so if the need arises, they’ll be able to help make sure that everything is done according to your wishes.
Caregiving Authority and Decision-Making
As you begin to prepare for your future care needs, it helps to understand how your loved ones will make key decisions in your best interests, and what legal documents need to be in place to ensure that happens.
Advance Directives
Advance directive is an umbrella term for all types of legal documents that dictate your desires for your future medical care. This can include a living will, do not resuscitate (DNR) order, physician order for life-sustaining treatment (POLST), proxy, and power of attorney. Having these documents in order before you need them will help ensure your wishes are fulfilled while reducing the burden and strain on your caregivers.
Health Proxies
A health proxy or healthcare agent is someone you trust to make informed medical decisions on your behalf. A proxy is not used unless or until you are in a position in which you cannot make your own medical choices or voice your wishes. This person can be a family caregiver or close loved one, like a spouse or adult child. Remember that you should always appoint an alternate proxy, in case the first proxy is unable to fulfill their responsibility for any reason.
Power of Attorney
A power of attorney is a legal document and advance directive in which your health proxy is named, along with the medical decisions he or she is permitted to make for you. A healthcare power of attorney is different from a general power of attorney. In general PoAs, the individual has the ability to make many types of decisions on your behalf, while a medical or health power of attorney can only make decisions related to your care services. PoAs should be included in living wills and must be notarized.
Signs it’s Time to Start Planning for Caregiving
It may not be pleasant to think about a time when you will no longer be able to fully care for yourself, but doing so now can save you and your loved ones significant hassle and heartache. Here are some of the triggers for future care planning:
- Age: You are in your 50s or 60s and are nearly retirement.
- Daily life signs: You begin to struggle with activities of daily living (bathing, feeding, toileting, managing medications, etc.) and need support to maintain self-care.
- Cognitive and behavioral changes: You notice significant changes in your mood, memory, or mental abilities.
- Mobility and safety: You begin to have a harder time getting around and are more prone to falls or bumping into objects.
- Health diagnoses: You have been recently diagnosed with a new, long-term health condition that may change your future care needs.
- Financial considerations: You want to protect your retirement savings and personal assets to cover your future needs and preserve a legacy or inheritance for your loved ones.
Plan Ahead with Long-Term Care Insurance
Whatever your plans for the future, there are resources that can help you and your loved ones be ready. One of the primary tools for future caregiving is long-term care insurance. These types of policies can sometimes cover the cost of family caregiving, or cover expenses related to in-home, assisted living, or nursing home care. This coverage can help meet your and your loved one’s needs while offering greater peace of mind in your golden years. Health insurance, Medicare, and Medicaid likely won’t be enough to cover your long-term care needs without compromising your financial stability, but LTCI can cover the gaps.
To learn more about LTCI plans in your state, download the free guide and get started!
1 “Caregiving in the U.S.,” AARP and National Alliance for Caregiving, July 2025.
April 2021
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