What is stepping up?

Everyone needs help sometimes. Wanting to step up when a loved one needs support is the easy part. It’s recognizing when and how to provide meaningful and respectful assistance that can be a bit harder to judge. This is particularly true when it comes to helping a senior manage money.

Holiday Retirement surveyed more than 500 baby boomers with older loved ones to gain insight into how, if at all, they assist their parents with financial matters. Their collective experience uncovers “been there” wisdom that can help you learn when and how to step up and take first steps – big or small – into financial caregiving and helping seniors manage money.

When to step up

Our research here at Holiday demonstrates three signs that it may be the right time for you to consider stepping up and helping your aging parent or other loved one. Respondents cited three main reasons why they stepped up:

	Either their parent or other loved one asked for their help, or was not interested in managing his or her own finances.
	The aging loved one has diminished capacity, such as from dementia or Alzheimer’s.
	The parent or other loved one is mismanaging finances in a way that affects his or her livelihood.

Read on to discover more of what the data says.

How to step up

Our survey data pointed to five ways that adult children can step up and help an aging parent or other loved one, affectionately known as our “step up portfolio.”

Three of these tips are do-it-yourself, and two focus on enlisting others’ help. And of course, every older adult is unique, so you will likely want to tailor some permutation of these, and perhaps other tips based on your family’s circumstances.

In the DIY category, consider the following three recommendations:

• Plan
• Monitor
• Manage

When it came to soliciting outside help, respondents cited two main sources of assistance:

• Hiring an estate planner
• Hiring a financial planner

Discover how you can employ any or all of these five ways in this e-book.