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How to Choose an Aged Care Plan for Your Parents

Organising your own financial situation is hard enough, but there’s an extra layer of stress and responsibility when you find yourself organising your elderly parents’ financial affairs.

There’s a lot of information to process and you should also consider professional financial planning advice so that you can have reassurance you’re making the best decisions for your parents. It’s important to take into account their specific needs and context.

Here’s a 6-step process to guide you through the process….

1. Start the Conversation

Discussing aged care is not easy, but it’s as crucial as it is unavoidable. Starting early can make the journey smoother for everyone involved.

• Family Meeting: Pool the collective thoughts of siblings and close family. This is an excellent opportunity for everyone to voice their thoughts and preferences.
• Neutral Third-Party Insight: Engaging a financial adviser with specific experience in aged care can be invaluable. Their expertise can help identify suitable facilities based on your parents’ financial situation and needs.

2. Explore Your Options

There are a range of aged care options available, each with its unique offerings.

• Types of Care: Whether it’s home-based care or residential facilities, it’s essential to assess what would be most comfortable and beneficial for your parents.
• Using Available Resources: The Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) can guide you on which type of care is most appropriate for your parents.

3. Search for the Ideal Aged Care Facility for Your Parents

To understand how to choose an aged care facility that aligns with your parents’ and family’s requirements, a methodical process helps to reduce the stress: 

• Create a Checklist: Identify key criteria like location, facilities, staff-to-resident ratio, and any specific medical care your parents might need.
• Checking the Finances: Understanding the cost structure is crucial. Make sure facilities offer transparency in their pricing and that it aligns with your budget.

Tip: myagedcare.gov.au is a great platform to start your search. Not only does it provide a list of facilities in your preferred location, but it also offers insight into what each facility provides.

4. Understand the Fee Structure

Australia’s aged care facilities can have complex fee structures. Navigating these effectively ensures your parents get quality care without unnecessary expenses.

• Break Down the Costs: Divide the expenses into categories like accommodation, daily care, and additional services. This helps to get a clearer picture of where the money is going.
• Seek Expertise: An specialist adviser can demystify the complex world of aged care costs to make it simpler for you to budget and plan.

5. Structuring finances

Accommodation costs are set by market forces and prices are published on the MyAgedCare website. If assets and income can be reduced to low enough levels (to become a low-means client) before the move, the government may subsidise accommodation and regulate how much your parent(s) pay(s).

This might result in cheaper accommodation but it might not be better accommodation. Choice and control may be lost. Your parents may be faced with accepting a place in whichever service has a low-means place available and this could even be a shared room.

Your adviser can review your full financial situation and provide advice on how to:

• Make appropriate decisions
• Structure assets to pay for accommodation and as well as create sufficient cashflow
• Minimise fees or maximise Centrelink or Veterans’ Affairs benefits

6. Estate planning

Anytime your parents’ circumstances change it is important to consider the impact this has on their estate plans. This includes when they move into aged care.

You should speak with your parents’ solicitor about their ability to review and redraft their will to reflect their wishes.

In light of dementia being a leading factor behind the need for aged care services, when the time comes it is likely that your parent(s) will need to delegate financial decisions to someone else. 

This is easier if an enduring power of attorney (and guardianship) is in place. It is important to have the appropriate powers in place before a person has lost legal capacity as once capacity has been lost, it will be too late to set up the powers and a trip to the Guardianship Tribunal will be needed.

Our specialisation in aged care

It’s a complex and emotional stage of life–for them and for you–when your parents are faced with moving out of their home and into an aged care facility. Don’t go it alone. There is so much to take in, and the decisions you make for your parents will affect them for the rest of their lives.

It helps to have an independent third party with professional expertise in this area to guide you and your family. One of our key specialisations is working with families to guide you through the process and each decision, step by step. At the end of the day these are huge financial decisions and often incredibly stressful.

Next steps

If your parents are close to needing aged care you may be feeling frustrated because:

• you don’t know where to start
• you don’t know what they can afford, and 
• you’re overwhelmed by jargon, acronyms and paperwork.

On top of this, you don’t want to make the wrong decision when you’re making financial choices for someone else.

When you allow us to guide you through the aged care decision-making process:

• you’re getting expert guidance and information
• you’ll have certainty around your parents’ financial position
• you’ll know what they can afford and
• you have someone else to do all the paperwork for you.

Best of all, by using our specialist aged care advisors you and your parents will have peace of mind knowing all available options have been explored and the optimum choices have been made with and for your parents.

Get in touch to book a time for an initial chat with us about the process and what’s involved.