What is John's Legacy?

John Fulton

Veteran and Retired Business Owner

A decorated Vietnam War veteran, John enjoyed a lengthy career as an oil exploration company executive. Now retired, he splits his time between working in his wood shop and volunteering for organizations serving wounded veterans. However, he’s now facing the battle of his life after recently being diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. He and his wife Marci turned to Return on Life Wealth Partners to get a handle on the financial implications of his diagnosis and to begin planning for John’s healthcare needs and expenses.

John’s a realist and understands the toll a diagnosis like Alzheimer’s can take on family finances. His greatest concerns were to:

Make sure he could afford to live at home for the duration of his illness, pay for the in-home care he would eventually need when Marci could no longer handle the full scope of his care herself, and ensure adequate assets would be available to provide for Marci’s income and lifestyle needs for the duration of her life.

Our experienced team understands the importance of obtaining help and guidance in navigating the legal and financial hurdles that accompany a dementia diagnosis. We believe this can go a long way toward reducing the stress and anxiety brought on by such devastating news. We encouraged John and Marci to meet with our team as early as possible to ensure John would be involved in the decisions about his future.

We provided the couple with our Plan of Care Guide, which serves as a roadmap for navigating future care needs and making confident and proactive care decisions. With the help of this guide, John and Marci were able to express and document their wishes and preferences regarding their future care needs, including who would be designated as decision makers in the event of incapacitation and to ensure all necessary legal and estate planning documents were in place to support their desires. The Plan of Care Guide also made it easy to candidly discuss their preferences with their adult children who wanted to play an active role in their parents' care as they aged.

Once we understood what was most important to the couple, we worked with John and Marci to fully assess their financial resources, including income from various sources such as his pension, Social Security, Medicare, Veteran’s benefits, and other investment assets, to make sure the couple's long-term care plans and preferences were realistic and could be funded.

Our early planning allowed John and Marci the time to make thoughtful, informed decisions aligned with their wishes, not only in regard to long-term care options and preferences, but the disposition of real property including their home, two cars, and a boat. We demonstrated multiple financial scenarios, showing how different strategies could help the couple address their goal to provide John with the private in-home care he desired while protecting their lifestyle and Marci’s long-term income needs.

We worked with the couple and their attorney to make sure their estate planning documents were up-to-date and could support their strategy. This included a will, durable Power of Attorney (POA), healthcare directives, and trust documents.

To help Marci prepare for a time when she would need to take over family financial management, we set them up on our WealthVision™ financial management system. This enabled both John and Marci to gain a consolidated view of all of their financial account balances and income sources in one place and store copies of ther estate planning documents, property titles and deeds, VA paperwork, and other important documents in their own secure online vault. We also talked to Marci about our Balancing Act^SM Bill Management services, should she need assistance with managing day-to-day financial responsibilities down the road.

However, we believe our most important contribution was providing John and Marci with the knowledge that they can rely on our team to walk beside them every step of the way in this difficult and uncertain journey, as we provide clarity and guidance in a compassionate and caring manner.

Do you or a family member need assistance with navigating care needs as you age? Download our Plan of Care Guide now, then contact us to schedule time to discuss how we can help you make confident decisions about the future you desire.