Experts advise early start to financial and health planning

COLUMBUS, Miss. (WCBI) – America’s Health Ranking reports that more than 55.8 million adults ages 65 and older live in the U.S., accounting for about 16.8% of the nation’s population, and By 2040, that proportion is projected to grow to 22%.

The more pages you’ve ripped off the calendar, the more likely you are to experience health issues. So in the event a crisis occurs, How prepared are you?

“Sometimes you are kind of in the moment; sometimes it is a crisis situation, so it makes it difficult to know what to plan for,” Holder said.

Misty Holder, the admission coordinator at Windsor Place Nursing Home, said having a plan in place for your end-of-life care is important not only for you but those close to you.

“Do you want to be in a facility? Would you try to be taken care of at home if you have a long-term care policy that might cover that type of care? Having that conversation ahead of time can really take the burden off of your loved ones,” Holder said.

So, how can you ensure your wishes are honored when you can no longer make decisions?

“You do things like medical directives or power of attorney to make sure what you envision happening to you if something like that could happen is laid out in written form, and they have to follow that,” Attorney Jeff Hosford said.

Hosford said it is best to get an early start to ensure that your long-term healthcare and assets are handled the way you want them to be.

“A trust allows one to go ahead in motions as though that trust is the owner of everything, and then that trust basically takes over when you pass away, and you are ahead of that trust until you pass away, and upon your death, your beneficiary is own that stuff whatever you have placed in that trust,” Hosford said.

Whether you have assets to pass on or not, Hosford said end-of-life decisions still will have to be made.

“We all, at some point, go home. The question is, do you want it to be done the way you want it to be done, or do you want it to be done when all your family is fighting over what you have worked so hard for all your life,” Hosford said.

For 24/7 news and updates, follow us on Facebook and Twitter