Let’s look at the importance of trust and distrust to good Grand Planning, starting with the kind of trust essential to productive senior caregiving relationships.
In my experience, the senior couple for whom I managed remote care several years ago demonstrated the kind of distrust that can become destructive and put healthy outcomes at risk. While both adults had willfully appointed me as their Power of Attorney and Successor Trustee should they be unable to manage their affairs, dementia led to some really horrible exchanges and responses to my applications of assistance.
Members of caregiving social media groups lament this behavior all the time. “She won’t listen to me, she doesn’t think she needs any help” or “He refuses to downsize even though he can’t live in that house anymore” are familiar complaints. To instill trust, caregivers and loved ones must get comfortable having conversations about this planning long before it becomes a challenge. Conversations with family and close friends should begin in midlife and continue in everyday chatter moving forward. Through this real-talking, we can all get comfortable with the relationship and trust will ensure and win the day. If we can ground ourselves in good trust, we can safe guard our relationships, strengthen our resources and move forward into our Golden Years with peace of mind.
Let’s switch gears and discuss the merits of distrust during our second half. Distrust protects us from the myriad scams that can wreck our senior stroll. Studies underscore the importance of being skeptical. According to the Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation National Poll on Healthy Aging at the University of Michigan, “Three in four adults age 50-80 (75%) reported that they experienced a scam attempt online or by phone, text, email, or mail in the past two years. Overall, 30% of all adults age 50–80 said they had experienced fraud.”
Financially, senior scams account for major drama. The National Council on Aging (NCOA) estimates fraud among adults 60+ results in more than $3.1 billion in losses. That is a lot of money that could be better spent on senior living arrangements, healthcare and legacy-building!
The NCOA shared the top five financial fraud scams to avoid:
- Government impersonation scams
- Sweepstakes and lottery scams
- Robocalls and phone scams
- Computer tech support scams
- And, the grandparent scam, when a caller who sounds like your grandchild asks you to send money.
Many of these swindles can be avoided by simply deleting or implementing a no-click or no-answer policy for all unprompted phone calls, emails or texts. One of the easiest things you can do is to just ignore it. Don’t respond, don’t reply and don’t investigate. Just delete it.
If someone official needs to get ahold of you, they’ll figure it out. Trust is complicated. Without it, senior loved ones jeopardize the Grand Plans they’ve worked hard to build. But trust is also essential to Grand Planning. Our relationships with one-day caregivers and life managers demand it.
