Hi, I’m Mike Walther founder and president of Oak Wealth Advisors with your special needs planning tip number eight.

Today’s topic is developing a list of future caregivers. This will be one of the most important planning elements of any good special needs financial plan. It’s important to think about who’s going to provide care when a parent’s no longer able to do so for their loved one with a disability. Many times, family members will tell us that we’re anticipating that a sibling will take over that role when the parents are gone. The reality is that it’s often not the best choice for the family in some cases siblings not going to be living in the same area and can’t provide the care. In other cases, they simply don’t want to and shouldn’t be relied upon to have to do that so we want to encourage families to find one or more local agencies that can provide qualified staffing for the level of need for the individual.

It’s important to have more than one because at times agencies are going to go through a change transition and maybe even go away so if we have both an initial plan and a backup plan we’re going to be in better shape than others who don’t think ahead like that. In addition we must communicate the ideas of which agencies we want to use to our family members they know who to contact when the parents pass away and the best way to document this type of information is what we call a care guide others might call it a letter of intent that’s going to be a written document it can be digital or on paper that shares all your plan and goals so that if someone’s got to step into your shoes and Implement those plans they know who those care agencies are that you’ve picked out for your loved one. So again, one or more agencies communicate with family document it in a care guide.

If you do those things your future caregiving is in good shape when you’re gone and that’s our planning tip for the day stay tuned for more in the future and if you want more planning advice feel free to go to our website check out information there look up our podcast – The Special Needs Voice podcast.

We hope you’ll stay connected thanks.