It's A Big Job, So Plan Ahead

Adult children who look after frail parents will benefit from being prepared for the lifechanging challenges

- Brian Herd

I have devoted myself to the calling of elder law or law relating to older people and their families. I follow the mantra “Doing well by doing good”. For many lawyers, the aspiration of doing good has become slightly perverted – it has become more about winning, not good over evil, or right over wrong, just winning. With families, the last environment you want to create is that of winners and losers. With that attitude, everyone is a loser.

In addressing the convoluted needs and demands of families with the smorgasbord of personalities, sense of entitlement and agendas, not to mention the various amounts of goodness and badness exposed in the stress of addressing parent problems, I would like to make a personal and a professional plea: no winners and losers please, just some way of finding the best way forward.

This article brings together a potpourri of issues that I have faced over the years of my experience – tall tales and true from within the denizens of families.

SO, YOU WANT TO BE YOUR PARENT’S CARER?

We do a lot of work in the area of family arrangements involving adult children providing care for their parent/s. It is on the rise and likely to exponentially increase as we live longer and residential aged care becomes more expensive. If you’re thinking of doing it, here are six factors you might want to consider:

1 IT COULD COST YOU MONEY.