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holistic planning
month in a private facility in Saskatoon, those are big numbers.”
Whether at home or in institutions, the costs and considerations of aging can become overwhelming. And the problem, MacDonald said, will only get worse as boomers — who on average have fewer children than previous generations — age and live longer.
“About 75% of all home care is currently per- formed by people’s children, and traditionally by women,” she said. “With an increasingly mobile workforce and one of the highest rates of female labour-force participation in the world, those children are simply not available.”
Advisors, MacDonald said, can also help broaden the conversation beyond simply saving money for retirement to thinking about financial and practical decisions for the potentially 30+ years following the end of work.
These conversations, bolstered by personalized information, often provide impetus to act, she said.
“It’s one thing to read about the percentages of people who go into nursing homes. But it’s another to have a financial planner say, ‘Here are your sources of income during retirement. Would you like to live at home or go into assisted living? Wouldn’t it be great if you had an extra thousand dollars a month that would get you into the level of care you’d like to have? Let’s discuss how we can do that.’” AE
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Long-terms care costs across Canada
Most people don’t understand the difference between retirement homes and long-term care or nursing homes, said Karen Henderson, a special- ist in aging and LTC planning. In short, “you can’t simply decide that you want to move into a nursing home. You must be assessed by your provincial unit as needing 24/7 care.”
Those who do qualify for public facilities pay for accommodations, while governments cover the costs of care and food. Accommodation costs vary depending on province and type (i.e., private versus shared rooms) and can range from zero in Nunavut to up to about $3,444 a month in British Columbia, Henderson said. In Ontario, residents pay approximately $2,700 monthly for a private room.
As the pandemic made tragically clear, however, the care provided in nursing homes may not be adequate; adult children and grandchildren often come in to supplement a parent’s care, or hire private personal support workers to help where they can’t.
Here is the average monthly rent for standard spaces in seniors’ resi- dences (private and non-profit), by region:
Atlantic Quebec Ontario Manitoba Sask. Alberta B.C. $2,858 $1,844 $3,865 $2,849 $3,105 $3,270 $3,364
Source: Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (data collected in February 2020)
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