Later Life Planning

I’m asked a lot about later life and what it means.

After you’ve enjoyed your retirement for a certain number of years, you’ve done lots of the fun things you wanted, and enjoyed your hobbies you really wanted to participate in, the next stage is later life.

To me, it’s really from the age of 70. It’s when you really need to start thinking about what later life means for you; do you want to leave a legacy to your loved ones?

Unfortunately, an awful lot of family disputes happen on death, and it’s generally related to money, with a lack of clarity prompting many disputes. It would be so nice if people planned for that a little bit more.

If more families were aware, these misunderstandings would not be as frequent as they currently are.

What happens if you have a care or support need in the future, or you experience an illness or terminal illness?

I don’t want to sound morbid, but it’s about thinking about the end of life as well, making it clear if you have particular wishes; that you share these with your family and loved ones, so there are measures in place for when you die.

Thinking about capacity

You might want to think about capacity, which is really important if you get to a stage where you can’t make a decision for yourself.

It’s also about having the confidence to make important financial decisions; isn’t it nice to think you could have a power of attorney in place which would allow someone to act on your behalf in that situation?

It’s really important to choose the right attorneys.

You can have a property and financial affairs power of attorney, and you can also have one for health and welfare.

They operate quite differently and both are important to have in place.

Often, people will choose different attorneys for both sides, depending on what’s more suitable for the family situation.

I always encourage my clients to have both sets in place, because it’s very important for your health and welfare to be addressed, as well as your financial affairs.

Planning ahead

When you get to this later stage of life, it’s like everything else; if you think about these things – and I know it’s not always nice to think about – but thinking about these issues at an early stage places you in a really good place to make decisions.

Planning ahead takes the pressure off your family and those that you leave behind, making it simpler for them to manage your estate.