Katherine’s parents both needed to go into aged care, and given the family medical history Katherine fears that she too may require aged care down the track. She recalls that it seemed an expensive and complicated process.
Even though she is in good health and only 74, Katherine is troubled by this and knows that her retirement is suffering because she’s so nervous about spending money in case it’s needed for aged care. While her friends enjoy holidays, she hasn’t travelled in years. Her friends encourage her to go and see an adviser and ask the following before the productive years of her retirement pass her by:
- Can you help me get an idea of the costs involved in aged care?
- Are you able to walk me through any Centrelink benefits that I might be entitled to?
- There seem to be several components of charges including a means tested fee, can you help me understand how that will apply to me?
- How would I meet these costs and charges given my current asset base? Can you walk me through my likely funding options?
- If I’m unable to make financial decisions because of reduced capacity how can I put something in place today to deal with that?
- Given everything I’ve told you, how do my finances look relative to my needs?
Katherine decides to engage Treysta to help her feel more comfortable with her concerns. She now has:
- A sound understanding of the fees and charges associated with aged care.
- An understanding of her options in regard to paying the various fees and charges.
- A view on how her financial position relates to the current Centrelink rules and entitlements.
- Confidence that she can legally appoint a person to make decisions on her behalf should she become incapacitated.
- Clarity around her ability to fund aged care, should she need to.
In addition, the adviser was able to provide Katherine with a much stronger sense of what she could afford to spend now. That reassurance changed Katherine’s life and she was able to join her friends on many trips and live her retirement freed of the restraints caused by her anxiety around aged care. When Katherine first decided to go and see an adviser, she was concerned about fees. Her experience has demonstrated that value can sometimes be hard to measure. How, for example, do you put a dollar value on the positive changes to Katherine’s life?
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