Being prepared for retirement and death...

Highly recommended article in today's Washingon Post giving examples of why you should be prepared as well as continue to urge family members to prevent making difficult situations for any family even more complicated.

In 1999, her father, Carl Larson, injured his head in a fall and had to move into an assisted living facility, forcing Myers to put her mother in a nursing home. The family needed to sell the couple's three-bedroom, 1950s ranch home in Springfield to pay the bills, but couldn't: Joan Larson's Alzheimer's left her legally incompetent to sign the deed, and she hadn't authorized anyone to sign for her.

Myers and her brother had to go through a long, costly and emotionally wrenching court proceeding to have their mother declared their financial ward in order to sell the house. "I sat there and watched an attorney tell her the court was stripping away all her rights -- her voting rights, her driver's license, her ability to handle money, every right she had as a citizen," Myers said. "It's something I live with every day."

This can be prevented...and I urge you to make sure your family has the basics covered...