Book Description

“An invaluable guide.” Noel Whittaker, International bestselling author and finance writer “Informative, inspiring, insightful … this is the essential family guide to navigating elder care and preparing for ageing parents.’’ Winner of the 2021 Australasian Journal on Ageing (AJA) Book Award. Informative and insightful, this is the essential family guide to preparing for ageing parents. This is a book that forces us to confront what most of us avoid - planning for our ageing parents. Our natural inclination is to wait and see what might happen. But when it does happen or starts to unfold, most families are unprepared, and the results can be devastating. Poor decisions, disputes with siblings and partners and the destruction of relationships can be the aftermath. Author Brian Herd should know, recognised as one of Australia’s leading experts in the areas of elder law, and aged care for over 35 years, he has dealt with the fallout from these failures in families. Avoiding the Ageing Parent Trap is packed full of practical strategies for dealing with family dynamics and managing financial and legal affairs, the overriding goal, is to forewarn and forearm you about your family’s future. This book is your go-to resource for: • Information and practical case studies to support families in their legal, financial, and healthcare decision-making. • Easy to read and commonsense advice from a leading elder care lawyer, with hands-on experience and examples to demonstrate what to expect, and even better, how to plan and prepare. • Help navigating the best outcomes for aging parents, from estate planning to Centrelink, residential aged care, wills, and financial pitfalls to avoid. Brian outlines practical strategies for dealing with family dynamics and avoiding the pitfalls. He recounts numerous hair-raising examples of bad ‘family planning’ and even better, what to expect, and how to plan and prepare.