<div id="readability-page-1"><div> By Beth Pinsker A care plan for solo agers is about more than just filling in names on forms Your plan will take care of you as you age. Dear Fix My Portfolio, We're in our mid-70s and do not have children. Our estate will be large and very liquid, and we want to avoid arguments with disbursement of the estate among our nieces and nephews, who are scattered across the country dealing with their own families and issues. What do we do if we become ill? So far, what we have done is make prepaid funeral arrangements. We are also on a retirement community wait list, but do not plan on moving there for at least five years, unless medically necessary or one of us passes. We have given general power of attorney to each other, and have healthcare proxies and a will, but we are not comfortable with giving general powers otherwise to just one relative. Currently all our documents list the other spouse first, and a niece or nephew as POA or executor, if the spouse is not able to handle. We're also concerned about corporate trustees due to fees and &#34;interest&#34; in our care. What's the best way for us to proceed? On our own Dear On Our Own, You've done quite a bit of planning already, but I can see how you feel it's not ideal if you're not really set on who you can count on down the line. The important thing for now is that you have something in place in case of an emergency and you can work on the rest as you figure it out. There are more than 20 million solo agers in the U.S. like you trying to figure out similar plans. Who will make medical decisions for you when you can't? Who will handle your finances? Who will take care of things after you die? There are other more immediate, logistical concerns too. &#34;If we have a car crash, who will let the dog out?&#34; is the one that plagues Jay Zigmont, a certified financial planner and author of &#34;The Childfree Guide to Life and Money.&#34; &#34;Roles need to be filled in when you don't have kids,&#34; said Zigmont, and that goes for the medical, financial and personal. Just giving a faraway niece or nephew the broad role of power of attorney isn't going to be enough. First of all, they could turn the job down when it comes time to act, or they could be incapacitated themselves. You can list a friend or distant relative as the first person you designate, but you want to have a secure, ongoing resource to list as the last person on the list. &#34;We tell folks, it's about community,&#34; said Zigmont. Friends can help each other. People can form &#34;Golden Girls&#34;-like groups and other intentional communities. But he suggested thinking about what it comes to when you're the last one standing in one of those circles. You have to consider that somebody would need to know a lot about your life in order to help you. For Zigmont, the dog is not only an allegorical concern, but also a truly practical one. If he and his wife were in a car crash, what would, indeed, happen to the dog? When he thought through the possibilities, it occurred to him that the sequence of events of how somebody would be able to get in touch with his dogwalker and get access to the house were all in his head. And then, what money would be used to care for the dog? Just naming somebody as a &#34;guardian&#34; and leaving them some money is no security. So he set about writing down care details for his dog and setting up a pet trust that names a trustee to dispense money for the dog's care. The same specificity is needed for household bills and long-term investing strategies. Zigmont's suggestion is to create care documents that specify all the particulars of your household and think through as much as you can. You can compile information on your own, but at some point, you will have to involve professionals like an estate attorney, a geriatric care manager and a trust company. The goal is to have a backup plan in case your extended family or friends are not available to help, or can't. This will cost some money, but it's kind of baked into the concept of solo aging. A trust company typically charges a percentage of assets yearly to manage a person's affairs. If your estate is large and liquid, as you say, then consider this just part of a portfolio management fee. It likely won't affect your lifestyle. For those with less wealth, you can look for hourly options from professionals, like geriatric care managers, who would be the ones to come to your bedside at the hospital, take up your binder full of information and sort out what you need. The important part of this is that you have to create the infrastructure for the person who is going to get called in an emergency. The way things work in the U.S. today, it's hard to find all of these services in one place. The professional trust companies will handle the financial side of things, but they won't make healthcare decisions, said Zigmont. The care managers can do that hand-holding part, but can't be the power of attorney. When it comes to your very big question of &#34;who will take care of us when we're old?&#34; you want to be able to answer this: My plan will take care of me. More Fix My Portfolio Why has Invesco's QQQ called me two dozen times in the past few weeks? Is it a scam? You may have made this big tax mistake. How to recover and still lower your RMD. This was one of my biggest regrets after my mom died-and you can avoid it this holiday season -Beth Pinsker This content was created by MarketWatch, which is operated by Dow Jones &amp; Co. MarketWatch is published independently from Dow Jones Newswires and The Wall Street Journal. <pre></pre> (END) Dow Jones Newswires 12-09-25 0800ETCopyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones &amp; Company, Inc.</div></div>

CARE

Beth Pinsker discusses planning for aging without children, emphasizing the importance of having a care plan beyond just naming relatives as power of attorney. She suggests forming community support, considering professional help, and creating detailed care documents. Solo agers should plan for medical, financial, and personal roles, and may need to involve estate attorneys and trust companies for comprehensive management.

We're in our 70s and childless. Who will take care of us and our fortune when we're old?