Fong Law Group

Positive Death

Many different people and groups in the U.S. are beginning to seek ways to turn death into a positive experience, that focuses on the person involved.

Death has typically been something of a taboo subject in our culture. We all know that it will eventually happen to us, but we do not typically like to think about it. Even those people who have strong religious beliefs that they will go to a much better place after they pass away, do not like to dwell too much on their own deaths.

It is a scary subject for us, since none of us can be absolutely certain what death will be like and what will happen afterwards. A side effect is that elderly people and the terminally ill do not often have people to help them deal with the process. A new movement is trying to change that, as The New York Times reports in "The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life."

The movement is not completely cohesive. It is just various people and groups trying to make the subject of death less taboo and to focus on the personal needs of the dying. In some places, it has taken the form of "death cafes," where anyone interested can come together and talk about the subject. Other people are working on ways for hospice patients to receive personal attention in the same way a midwife helps those giving birth.

One reason why many people do not get estate plans, is they do not want to think about their own death. If this new movement is successful and does result in more people getting estate plans, that will be a very good thing for many families.

Reference: New York Times (June 22, 2018) "The Positive Death Movement Comes to Life."

Stay Issued in California Doctor-Assisted Suicide Case

A California Appeals Court has issued a stay order against a lower court's ruling that had declared the state's doctor-assisted suicide law unconstitutional.

Several states have passed laws allowing doctors to assist terminally ill patients who want to commit suicide. Whenever these laws are passed, there is always some controversy.  However, it has not been nearly as what has occurred since California passed its law allowing the practice.

California has seen groups consisting of both doctors and religious-affiliated people fight hard against the law. In May of 2018, the law’s opponents won a major victory, when a district court judge declared that the law violated the state's constitution.

However, it was not a complete victory. This is because the judge did not rule on the merits of doctor-assisted suicide. Instead, the judge declared the manner in which the law had been passed as unconstitutional. That partial victory is now in doubt, as an appeals court issued an immediate stay of the lower court's order, as KVOA reports in "Court reinstates doctor-assisted suicide in California."

The California law is being closely monitored by interest groups on both sides of the debate over doctor-assisted suicide.

Interest groups are also following the law, because it included several provisions mandating that the state collect data about how the law was working and to issue regular reports about it. Both sides hope what the data reveals will be helpful for them, as other states consider similar laws.

Reference: KVOA (June 16, 2018) "Court reinstates doctor-assisted suicide in California."

The AARP Takes on Student Loans

An organization whose purpose is to promote the interests of older Americans might seem unlikely to be worried too much about student loan debt, but the AARP sees the issue as a growing part of its missio

Many Americans decide to go to college, after being in the workforce for some time, even decades. Colleges are typically for younger people.

That means most student loans are taken out relatively early in a person's lifetime. If everything goes well the debtor graduates, finds a job and pays off the loans. However, everything does not always go well and that is increasingly the case for many Americans.

It's a becoming a big enough problem that even the American Association of Retired Persons is starting to worry about it, as Politico reports in "Why the AARP is worried about student loans."

The AARP has two basic issues with the current student loan situation. The first is that an increasing number of elder Americans have defaulted on their loans. As a result, their Social Security benefits are being garnished. The organization is trying to get a law passed to end the garnishment of Social Security benefits.

More generally, the AARP is worried that the increasing amount of debt graduates are carrying is making it difficult for them to save for retirement. Americans generally do not save enough for their retirements. If the student loan situation gets worse in a few decades, elder Americans could be even more unprepared to retire.

It is not as clear currently what can be done about this second problem.

Reference: Politico (June 7, 2018) "Why the AARP is worried about student loans."

California's Assisted Death Law Struck Down

In 2015 California passed what many people considered to be a groundbreaking physician-assisted death law. A court has now overturned it.

Advocates and detractors of physician-assisted suicide have been paying close attention to the state of California. A law passed there in 2015 to allow the practice, was thought to be a good opportunity to see how it would work in a large state population, especially since the law contained important provisions concerning record keeping and reporting.

Regular reports on how the law was being used, were also supposed to be issued by the state. While the law is very popular with citizens according to polling data, many doctors were not as impressed and a group of them sued in 2016 to stop the law.

Recently, a judge in California ruled in favor of the doctors and struck down the law as the Sacramento Bee reports in "California assisted death law overturned in court."

The doctors argued that the law did not adequately define terminal illness, for it to be clear which patients were eligible for physician assistance. The law also exempted people who helped patients with death from liability. The doctors complained that the law was not passed by the legislature following the appropriate procedure. The judge agreed with these claims.

The law’s supporters point out that the ruling was not about the legality of physician-assisted death itself and California has subsequently filed an appeal of the court's ruling.

Reference: Sacramento Bee (May 15, 2018) "California assisted death law overturned in court."

Plan Ahead to Be a Caregiver

Americans are increasingly acting as the primary caregivers for their elderly parents. This is something that they should make plans for ahead of time.

If you know you were going to have increased expenses in the future, you would be wise to plan ahead for how you will meet those expenses. This is something people do all the time. Someone who would like to buy a house, plans ahead to save the money needed for a down payment.

One future expense many Americans will face is the cost of acting as the primary caregivers for their elderly parents. Older Americans are living longer than ever before, and nursing homes continue to get more expensive. Being the caregiver for an elderly parent is also increasingly common. Americans need to plan for how they will meet the future caregiving expenses, as Kiplinger's Personal Finance discusses in "Why Families Need a Plan for Caregiving."

Beyond just having another mouth to feed, caregiving can often come with other expenses, such as helping an elderly parent pay for expensive co-pays for medicine and expensive insurance deductibles. Other expenses can come from making sure that a home is a safe environment for an elderly person who needs caregiving. People should also speak with an elder law attorney to find out what programs might be available for their parents.

It is not possible to know ahead of time, how much money you might need to help an elderly parent or even if you will have to be a caregiver at all. Nevertheless, you can get a better idea of what might be coming up, by talking to your parents ahead of time and making plans.

Reference: Kiplinger's Personal Finance (May 9, 2018) "Why Families Need a Plan for Caregiving."

 

Where to Move in Retirement

If you move to another state when you retire, there could be more options. Many older Americans are choosing other states to live in during their retirement years.

Traditionally, when Americans move after they retire, they choose to go to a state with a warm climate. Arizona and Florida are popular options. They have both developed the infrastructure and industries for elderly Americans to live comfortably and to get the services they need.

However, more and more retired people are choosing to move to other states. One trend is for people to move closer to their adult children, as The New York Times reports in "The New Retirement: Near the Kids."

One reason for the trend is that people are more likely to move further away from their hometowns when they grow up, than ever before. Young people today often find they need to move to far away cities for job opportunities in their chosen fields.

As much as parents would like to be closer to their children and grandchildren, they often cannot move closer since they have jobs of their own. That all changes when the parents retire.

A positive result of this trend is that it helps to combat the growing incidence of elderly Americans who are lonely and isolated.

There are many options for moving when you are retired. One thing to keep in mind if you do want to move closer to your children, is that living in large cities is usually more expensive than living elsewhere. Plan accordingly, before you move.

Reference: New York Times (May 4, 2018) "The New Retirement: Near the Kids."

Love Is Not Just for the Young

It is common for elderly people to fall in love and want to get married. As part of the process, they need to make more plans than younger couples.

A common image of the elderly is to see them as past the years to fall in love. Could seniors meet someone new, fall in love and get married? In movies and on TV, elderly people who do fall in love are typically played off for laughs or presented as being under the spell of someone much younger who wants their money.

In real life, it is not unusual for an elderly man and an elderly woman to meet each other, fall in love and get married. Sometimes couples meet in the nursing homes where they live. The only difference between young couples and elderly couples is that the elderly may need to do more planning before they get remarried, as Wealth Management explains in "Never Too Old for Love."

The main thing every elderly couple getting married needs is to understand, is that every state has default rules for how spouses must be treated in an estate plan and in medical decision-making. This means that any current estate plans need to be reviewed and changed to account for what the couple would like to do with their estates. Advanced medical directives and powers of attorney might also need changing as well.

Elderly people can and do fall in love with each other and get married just like anyone else. Life does not end when people reach a certain age.  However, everyone who does get married later in life, needs to make sure that they do the appropriate planning.

Reference: Wealth Management (May 1, 2018) "Never Too Old for Love."

Living Well in Retirement

Americans can expect to live longer after retiring than previous generations.  However, whether they will live better, is an open question that depends on individual choices.

At first glance, Cecilia Chiang might seem like an exception. In some ways she is. The 98-year-old woman who retired in 1991, after a long and successful career in the restaurant industry, continues to be active both in her personal life and professionally consulting for other restaurant owners.

People who can still do that at her age, are now exceptions now.  However, they do not have to be that exceptional in the future, as Americans continue to live longer after formally retiring. To be like Chiang requires some planning, as Market Watch discusses in "5 tips to live in retirement like this famous 98-year-old."

Here are some things to consider:

• It is best to delay retirement until you are debt-free, if possible. When you no longer have income from full-time employment, you do not want to be using savings to pay debt.
• Have a plan for what you want to do when you retire. Do not just stop working and then wonder what to do with your time. Decide what you will do with your time and then stop working.
• Get advice from good advisors. Not everyone needs a financial advisor. However, those who don’t know for sure, should consult one. It is also a good idea to speak to an attorney about estate planning and end-of-life care legal documents.
• Figure out what your expenses are going to be. Make sure that you can afford them, before retiring.
• Consider working in a lesser capacity, such as consulting, or working in the gig economy. This will not only keep you active, it will also give you some extra income.

Reference: Market Watch (May 1, 2018) "5 tips to live in retirement like this famous 98-year-old."

Living to 100

Wealthy people are beginning to expect that they will personally live to be at least 100 years old. That has important implications for their planning.

Rich people have most likely always lived longer, on average than the non-wealthy and that is certainly the case today. However, even the wealthy never really live much longer after retirement age.

Nevertheless, medical science has made tremendous strides recently. People can now expect to live much longer, if they can afford the best medical treatment. Today, half of wealthy investors expect that they will live to be 100 years old, as Forbes reports in "Are You Financially Ready To Live To 100?"

This has important implications for how much people will need to save before they retire. The longer you plan to live after retiring, the more money you need before retiring. It also has important implications for estate planning and end-of-life care.

People who expect to live to 100 need to plan their estates, so they will still have something left over for their heirs to inherit. They also need to make sure they have all the advance health directives they might need.

Research suggests that people are living longer.  However, they are not necessarily healthier than previous generations of elderly people. A long life may just provide more time to experience diseases associated with old age, such as Alzheimer's.

If you think you will live to be 100 years old, make sure that you have the appropriate plans in place.

Reference: Forbes (April 19, 2018) "Are You Financially Ready To Live To 100?"

Wives Need to Know About the Finances

In the last few decades, women have made tremendous strides in the workplace. However, most married women still leave financial matters to their husbands. That can be a problem in their elder years.

Women today can do almost anything in their professional lives. There are very few boundaries left that women have not been able to cross.

A few decades ago, that was not the case when husbands made the money and the important financial decisions for their families. However, despite the strides women have made professionally, in most families, it is still the husband who makes all the important financial decisions.

That can lead to big problems for women later in life, as Bloomberg reports in "Rise of 'Gray Divorce' Forces Financial Reckoning After 50."

Most married women will outlive their spouses. They might not even have a spouse to outlive, because divorces for people over 50 are becoming increasingly common. The result? An elderly woman who relied on her husband to handle their financial decisions, may suddenly be forced to do so for herself. They often make expensive mistakes in the process.

The best thing for everyone would be for married couples to make important financial decisions together. That way neither of them will need to learn how to handle finances in their elder years.

Reference: Bloomberg (April 13, 2018) "Rise of 'Gray Divorce' Forces Financial Reckoning After 50."