re: is a power of attorney for aging parents a good idea?

POA and Medical POA is very important.

A will should be done as well and some type of long term care insurance (might be too late for that).

I did this for my mother who passed in December. Fifteen years ago, my uncle passed and left my mother some money. We used some of her inheritance as a buy in to a facility that had independent, assisted and nursing home care.

Buying in locked the monthly cost to 2300$/mos for whatever level of care she needed. My siblings thought that this was expensive and voiced their concern, but because my mom had chose me for POA it was my duty to decide.

The way that it worked out, my mom stayed about 9 months in independent care but her cognitive status deteriorated and she had to move to assisted living (which cost double). But the monthly cost remained 2,300/mos because of the buy in.

After two years in assisted, she suffered a fall and broke her wrist and pelvis and had to have surgery. This wrecked what was left of her mind and she wound up with full blown altzheimers and spent the last 6 years of her life in the nursing home.

In my mom's situation, by signing up for life care, we saved quite a substantial amount of money, leaving decent inheritance for me and my siblings. I'm glad it worked out.

Good luck.