When thinking about your estate plan, you must consider what might happen to you or your loved ones if you were no longer able to care for yourself. This is an increasingly common situation as it relates to caregiving for adult children today. Emotional and financial stress can represent significant changes in their life so if the default of your elder law plan is that a family member will step in and care for you, think carefully about how this could impact them and other loved ones.

Many people have had to step back from their careers to care for elderly loved ones and while this is still likely the first choice of the person who has stepped back, wanting to provide the best for their family, it doesn’t come without stress. In fact, a recent study from Fidelity Investments found that over 60% of active caregivers said they were at least occasionally overwhelmed with financial stress.

Plenty of them had to take significant time out of their jobs with the average time out of the workforce being 20 months. Furthermore, many of them took pay cuts when they went back to work at a median of 40% of what they were making previously. Thinking ahead about your caregiving plan and how you can minimize the possible burden on your loved ones is important.

While your loved ones will likely tell you that it’s not a burden to take care of you, the more proactive you can be with your estate and elder law planning, can make it that much easier for you to reduce the stress faced by your loved ones in this already difficult situation. For more information about crafting an estate and elder law plan unique to your family’s dynamics, schedule a consultation with an estate planning attorney.