When you become a caregiver there is no fanfare or fireworks. Instead caregivers like you have been thrust into an unknown reality overnight that forces you to ask a lot of questions and compile a lot of information very quickly. However, the most significant and challenging questions are – Where do I start? What do I do first? This is where the free Caring Village Family Caregiver Guide Checklist can help you and your family.
Caring Village’s Family Caregiver Guide Checklist
Our Family Caregiver Guide Checklist will help you understand what important Financial Medical, Legal, and Estate planning documents should be created, obtained, and stored for you or a loved one.
Once completed, our checklist will give you tremendous peace of mind by assuring you that you have all that you need are and that you have honored your loved one’s wishes.
The Family Caregiver Guide Checklist helps you:
Determine what contact information and key documentation you need to collect and categorize
In a previous post, experts from Vaughan, Fincher & Sotelo outlined the information you will need access to in case of an emergency. You will first want to begin with capturing all of the important points-of-contact. Getting together all of the information in one consolidated place before an emergency occurs can save time, money, and potentially lives.
Get your financial information organized
Trying to get all of your loved one’s financial information together can be very confusing and difficult. To get started, you need to know what questions to ask when discussing finances with your aging loved one.  The types of questions you can ask about financial documents you will need include:
- Where do you store your financial documents?
- Do you have a safe deposit box? If yes, where is it and where is the key?
- Where is the most up-to-date will with an original signature located?
- What are the names of your banks and account numbers (checking, savings, credit union)?
- Do you have an accountant or financial planner? If yes, what is his/her contact information?
Get your legal and medical information consolidated and organized
Do you know your parents’ blood type? What allergies they have? What medicines they are taking? These are some of the questions you will have to answer when using this checklist. Organizing your aging loved one’s legal and medical information will put you in a good position to answer difficult questions from a doctor or insurance company.
Ask questions and find items you have never thought to inquire about
When was the last time you talked to your parents about Irrevocable Life Insurance Trusts? You most likely haven’t. That is just one of the multiple checklist items you will be charged to confirm in the Legal and Estate Planning portion of the Guide.
As a caregiver you will be challenged to know a lot of information and learn it quickly. Knowing where to begin is the hard part- but we make it easy! To get started, download the checklist here and be as prepared as possible for the unexpected of tomorrow.
