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How Technology Helps Seniors Stay Socially Engaged While Socially Distancing Everything we have come to know about successful, healthy aging is contingent upon connection to those around us. The opportunities for people to laugh, move, and learn together is foundational to aging success. Enter th...

Letter of Instruction for Your Estate Plan Whether you are starting from scratch or have an estate plan in place a letter of instruction (LOI) is an important part of any comprehensive plan. A letter of instruction can help your loved ones manage important information about you. A LOI conveys y...

Wills and trusts have specific and quite different benefits for estate planning purposes. Each state has specific laws and regulations governing these legal documents. You can have both a will and a trust; however, the information in each should compliment the other. As a standalone, it is not ac...

Ten Tips to Help Seniors Reduce the Risk of Falling The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports one out of five senior falls causes a serious injury like a broken bone or head trauma. Injuries of this sort can make life difficult for an older person to do everyday activities or live on...

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Issue Guidance for Nursing Home Visitation Revised guidance for nursing home visitation has been issued by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS). It is now possible to have visitation with nursing home residents for reasons other than urgent end-of-life...

Looking for the Silver Linings Amidst a Pandemic Record unemployment rates related to COVID-19 business closures have hurt business owners and their workers, many of whom are 50 years and older. Though workers of all ages have felt the effects of unemployment or reduced working hours, older worke...

The Top Ten Myths About Risks for Alzheimer's Disease Polling shows that the number one worry for Americans as they age is memory loss, outpacing fears of insufficient monies, and loneliness. The most prevalent among all dementia is Alzheimer's disease. According to the Alzheimer's Association Fa...

Beneficiary Designations: Pitfalls You May Not Know About You might think that leaving your property to your heirs would be simple enough. You make a will or a trust, you do a transfer-on-death deed for your real estate, you put your kids on your bank account, you designate beneficiaries for your...

Developing an Effective COVID-19 Vaccine for the Elderly is a Challenge Older Americans, the most at risk of COVID-19, are the least likely demographic to respond well to a vaccine. A vaccine shot works by fooling the body into believing it has been infected with a virus, thereby prompting its im...

Living Alone in Your 50s and 60s Increases Your Risk of Dementia by 30 Percent Living arrangements for aging Americans are decidedly leaning towards aging in place. Nearly all older adults prefer to age in the comfort of their long time homes and familiar community surroundings. Aging in place of...

Finding a Continuing Care Retirement Community Continuing care retirement communities (CCRC) are gaining in popularity across the United States. Sometimes referred to as life plan communities, the goal is to provide a long-term care option for older residents. These residents prefer to live in th...

Technologies to Help Seniors Stay Emotionally Healthy During the Coronavirus Pandemic In the best of circumstances, adults in senior living communities and long-term care facilities combat loneliness and some degree of isolation, which is linked to anxiety, depression, cardiovascular disease, and...

Alzheimer's and Family Caregiving This year, in 2020, a significant portion of the American baby boomer generation has reached the age of 65 or older, which increases their risk for Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia diseases. By the year 2030, the 65 plus age segment of the population will ...

Health Care Power of Attorney: Specific or General You have the right to decide what kind of medical treatment you want to receive from doctors and health-care providers. If you can speak up at the time, you can express your wishes yourself. But if you become incapable because you're ill or inju...

Beneficiary Designations: Pitfalls You May Not Know About You might think that leaving your property to your heirs would be simple enough. You make a will or a trust, you do a transfer-on-death deed for your real estate, you put your kids on your bank account, you designate beneficiaries for you...

Challenging Health Care Bills We owe immense gratitude to those who are caring for the sick, and to those who support those workers. At the same time, we should be skeptical of bills we may be presented for that care. The struggle to contain health-care costs in this country is now a fixture in ...

Family Caregiving During the Coronavirus There are new challenges to meet for family systems with loved ones who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus yet still require caregiving. Family caregivers that use to aid their family directly, now find themselves learning how to be long-distance provi...

Isolation Due to COVID-19 May Increase the Risk of Elder Abuse As some of the most vulnerable Americans to the COVID-19 pandemic, older adults are staying at home to lower their risk of infection as the coronavirus spreads throughout communities. The American Bar Association (ABA) reports that an...

Should You Remove Your Loved One From a Nursing Home During the COVID-19 Pandemic? Uncertainty can breed fear, particularly when it comes to caring options for a loved one currently in a nursing home during the COVID-19 pandemic. Facing the questions like how long this health crisis will last and...

Who Should Make Financial Decisions for You? Who should you trust to manage your financial well being when you are no longer able to do so? A power of attorney (POA), otherwise known as an agent to your principal, has the legal authority to represent and make decisions on your behalf. What charac...

The Hardest Question: Who Draws the Line? In this Covid-19 epidemic, a wrenching question especially demands an answer: if you or someone you love is taken down into life-threatening illness, how far would you want extreme life-prolonging measures to be tried? For us who are particularly vulnerab...

Your Digital Footprint is Growing – Have You Planned Accordingly? There are very few individuals without a digital footprint anymore. From social networks like Facebook, Linkedin, Instagram, Twitch.tv and Twitter, blogs and licensed domain names, email, music, photos, seller accounts on eBay, Ama...

Staying Mentally Sound During the Coronavirus Pandemic Many of us are facing unprecedented challenges during this coronavirus crisis in America, and it has increased anxiety and fear levels in all of us. The reactive part of your brain called the amygdala, a human physiological response when face...

Helping Seniors Avoid Loneliness While Maintaining Social Distance The medically recommended protocols for social distancing and government mandates that restrict large gatherings of Americans to slow the spread of the coronavirus are minimizing our abilities to interact with each other. This iso...

Telehealth Replaces Many In-Person Medical Appointments Through the use of videoconferencing over wireless devices and remote health tech monitoring, telehealth can connect patients to vital health care services. According to the American Hospital Association (AHA)fully 76 percent of US hospitals...