When my dad was first diagnosed with Lewy body dementia (LBD) at 83 years old , I didn’t really believe it. LBD is the second most common form of degenerative dementia after Alzheimer’s, and I had seen some signs of forgetfulness, but I thought these were just symptoms of getting older.
My dad practiced orthodontics for 30 years before retiring. How could it be that he now couldn’t draw basic shapes, or place the hands of a clock so they showed a specific time, or answer easy questions about a simple story that was just read to him?
Sadly, dementia diagnoses such as my dad’s were on the rise, and continue to be. By 2050, an estimated 12.7 million Americans aged 65 and older will live with Alzheimer’s, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.
Dementia can be financially devastating
And with each diagnosis, as I’ve learned, comes sadness, fear of the unknown and unfathomable costs. Even for people like my parents, who were in a position to save for a comfortable retirement, the high cost of dementia care is still burdensome. They were among the lucky ones. For many people, it can be financially devastating.
Dementia is touching more families every year, and the financial impact can feel just as overwhelming as the emotional one. RBC Wealth Management–U.S. is committed to changing that. Through dedicated research, industry partnerships and educational resources, we’re helping families understand what to expect and plan ahead.
RBC research has found that overall costs of dementia care can exceed $750,000. Prior to my father’s diagnosis, I would have scoffed at that figure. But now, I understand how things can add up so quickly.
Planning for round-the-clock care
When my father suddenly needed 24/7 care, we already had a service set up to come to my parents’ home a couple times per week, but we couldn’t find round-the-clock care on such short notice. Not only that, but the cost of full-time, in-home care was $40 an hour.
So, my siblings, our spouses, my mom and I had a family meeting to try to figure out how we could make round-the-clock care work. Fortunately, my dad regained mobility just a few days later, eliminating the need for such full-time care.
However, my parents eventually needed to find a place that would provide a combination of independent living for my mom and memory care for my dad.
Full-time care facilities can be costly
Long-term care facilities are not only expensive, but their waiting lists are also typically extremely long.
In fact, a year before the diagnosis, my parents made a down payment on a condo in a care community that had yet to be built. In addition to the cost of the condo, my mother and father would each have to pay a monthly membership fee that gave them access to a broad spectrum of services, from routine healthcare to memory care to hospice. The fees ranged from around $4,000 a month for people like my mom, who was healthy when she became a member, to nearly $15,000 a month for my father, who joined after being diagnosed with dementia.
Even for families with resources and means, these large expenses are tough to swallow—particularly when we thought our parents would be spending their hard-earned savings during their golden years doing more of the things they loved, like travel.
By highlighting the true cost of dementia, RBC Wealth Management hopes to equip our advisors and clients with the information they need to have proactive conversations about planning for a possible long-term care event or health diagnosis such as dementia. Big expenses, as most people know, are easier to manage if you have prepared in advance.
Retirement planning should include potential healthcare costs
Even with the data in hand, I know it’s not an easy conversation to have. Thinking about how you might manage costs associated with a disease you don’t even know you’ll get isn’t something most people want to spend time on.
However, having been through this process with my father and witnessing firsthand just how big of a chunk dementia care can take out of a retirement nest egg, I’m telling anyone who’ll listen that planning for a possible health issue in retirement is in their best interest.
Once we realized just how much dementia care can cost, my brother and I both purchased long-term care insurance to help protect our families financially should we receive a similar diagnosis in the future. There are different insurance options, including hybrid policies that work like life insurance if long-term care is never needed but help pay for care if it is. We also made sure we had current powers of attorney in place.
These conversations we had, first with ourselves and then with our families, were certainly not easy, and there’s a lot of emotion involved. My father passed away in 2022. I share his story because I know he would have wanted it to help other families plan.
Good health can change in an instant. Having a thought-out plan in place should that happen can make a big difference for your family, not only mentally and emotionally, but also financially.