“Despite this welcome news for parents, the study suggests several areas where they [parents] need to speak up to ensure their wishes are heard, as it appears the children may not be getting the message,” says John Sweeney, Fidelity’s executive vice president of retirement and investing strategies.
Whether it is estate execution, long-term care-giving during an illness, or help in managing investments and retirement finances, it often turns out that the very child that parents expect will handle things doesn’t have a clue the responsibility will fall to him or her. (Reaching as high as 44 percent of children, in the case of helping to manage their parents’ household expenses.)
Part of this miscommunication is attributed to “timing,” given that only 33 percent of parents and their offspring agree on when it’s “appropriate” to initiate conversation related to aging. Before retirement? Upon entering retirement? Closer to when health and/or finances become an issue? (The correct answer? Before retirement.)
Compounding the problem is that even when those conversations do occur, the study found, they’re not as detailed as they should be.
