One family's experience demonstrates the value of long term care

A long term care story from Deb Newman, President and Founder of Newman Long Term Care:

I think it's wonderful if kids volunteer to take care of their parents. There was a couple up in Northern Minnesota that had talked to their daughter who volunteered.

She said, “You know what mom, I'm going to take care of you. When dad's gone, I will be here to take care of you.”

So that's exactly what happened. Dad passed away, then mom needed care and this daughter moved in and took care of her.

What the mom said was, “You know what I'll do, I will allow you to have the house and more of the assets if you'll do this for me.” 

But after a year, the daughter couldn’t deliver the kind of care that her mom needed anymore. So they started with home care and then ultimately the mom needed to be fully cared for in a facility.

After the mom passed away, the daughter who took care of her was talking to her brother and she said, “You know mom promised me that if I took care of her that I could have more of the assets.”

Well, first of all, the assets – most of them got used up because the mom needed advanced care, but then the brother said, “No, no, no, you volunteered to do that. We're going to split this half and half.”

Now what really hurts me about this is: Do you think the mom in a million years thought that plan she and her daughter agreed to would end up where the brother and sister don't talk anymore?

That's what this is all about.

It's about having a conversation with your entire family about what's going to happen when long-term care arises.
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The best thing to do is to have a plan. Education Minnesota ESI Member Benefits is providing you access to resources to help develop and communicate your plan.  Contact us today to take the first step.

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