Suzanne Wolfson, MBA, CFP

Financial Planner for Retirement
Suzanne Wolfson, CFP® is the founder of For Retired Only™, a fee-based financial planning...read more

Fund Unexpected Elder Care Costs with Your Personal Resources

When shifting circumstances bring unexpected elder care costs, they also bring the urgency of having to make short and long-term financial decisions. It is at this point that one must confront the reality of the exorbitant costs of care for the chronically ill and elderly. In 2007, the annual cost of long-term care in the US averaged $77,000. While many people are woefully unprepared to handle these high costs, many others have serious misconceptions about the real costs of...Read entire article »

Paying for Senior Care with the Inheritance

As a financial planner for the elderly, one of the issues that I am frequently confronted with is the spending down of the inheritance to pay for the high cost of eldercare. All too often, when an aging person’s health and care needs require important difficult financial changes to be made, the adult children’s sense of financial bequest and expectation misdirects their decisions and actions, negatively impacting the quality of care received by their elderly parent. Many elderly people...Read entire article »

Lessons I Learned after My Father’s Death

Even after thirty years in the financial planning industry, I am constantly learning and gaining new professional experience. This time, however, the experience came from the recent, painful loss of my dad. His passing came after twelve years of his living in elder care facilities and his slow deterioration, which included dementia, the loss of his senses, his ability to perform the activities of daily living and more. As I learned with my father’s death, no matter how prepared...Read entire article »

Thinking of Selling Your House? Read this First!

Should I Sell My House? This is frequently the most significant financial decision faced by many seniors—or by family caregivers. Often the impetus is that a person’s cost of care has risen or that home maintenance and safety issues have become unmanageable. The situation can become acute if family members or other potential caregivers live too far away from the homeowner to provide help on a regular basis. Beyond the potential emotional issues that surface and need to be considered,...Read entire article »

How Much Can You Save with Advance Planning?

The devastating reality is that without advance planning, sometimes a lifetime of saving and assets must be spent in order to cover the costs of care. However, a careful evaluation can help you avoid costly mistakes and can significantly augment or maximize the value of the resource. Where do you begin? Make a List of Your Assets and Predict Your Future Care Needs First start with a clear accounting of all resources. Then consider your present needs and those...Read entire article »