Advisor.ca – Your clients aren’t ready to care for their parents 

Retirement planning has traditionally centred on helping clients accumulate enough assets to support themselves in later life. Increasingly, advisors are also helping them prepare for the financial and emotional realities of caring for aging parents. 

Caregiving is becoming one of the defining experiences of midlife. These clients are often balancing careers, mortgage payments, retirement savings and children’s expenses, while simultaneously helping older parents navigate health issues, housing decisions and declining independence. 

Canadian caregivers are typically middle aged, and caring for a parent with age-related challenges, according to a report from the Canadian Centre for Caregiving Excellence (CCCE). These folks provide an average 5.1 hours of support each day — a schedule they maintain for years. They can’t know if they’re in a sprint or a marathon. My own experience lasted a decade.