A new AARP study finds 69% of boomer women have talked with their parents about how the parents would live independently as they get older. But just 40% of them have actually planned for the possibility their parents may ultimately need assistance.
For financial advisors working with boomer women, the key message of AARP's findings is that many appear to need guidance on how to help parents prepare to live independently as they age.
In addition, many boomer women are beginning to think about their own care when they are older, in the event they should ever need assistance, AARP found.
About 20% of boomer women say they have thought about a nursing home as an acceptable option for an aging parent, the survey found. AARP notes, however, that one of its previous studies has shown only 1% of people age 50-plus would prefer to live in a nursing home if they needed long term care.
The new study shows 43% of boomer women are "very concerned" and 26% "somewhat concerned" about their parents' ability to continue living independently as they age.
Older boomer women were most likely to have talked with their parents about the possibility they might ultimately need some help. AARP found that 78% of women 65 and older had had this conversation, compared to 66% of those aged 45 to 54 and 74% of those aged 55 to 64.
Those who had finished college were also more likely to have discussed the issue with their parents, with 77% saying they had talked about it, vs. 64% who had no more than a high school education.
