Financial Caregiving

Many families must collectively manage their loved ones’ finances–all the more complex when that loved one is at a distance or dealing with some kind of cognitive impairment. New digital tools for sharing information and managing finances among multiple family members are popping up and proving indispensable to caregivers all over the country.

Even with the defeat of Build Back Better in its most ambitious form, there is a policy renaissance underway at many levels when it comes to care. And yet, the only way this policy is going to impact real families is if government gurus, systems designers, and culturally attuned communicators figure out how to inform people and guide them to access their new benefits.

For too many, retirement is not economically viable, and for others, it’s undesirable. Plenty of research now shows that keeping your body and mind active, not to mention connected with a sense of purpose, are key to a long, healthy life. The opportunity ahead is to combat ageism and reimagine roles—paid and unpaid—for the over 65 set.

The way we design financial products and services is finally catching up to the reality of our lives—that disability and illness can strike in an instant and that the pace and shape of our aging looks different for everyone. We’re watching long term care insurance, loan financing, and so many other sectors get upended by companies who seize on the unpredictability of care costs as a creative constraint rather than a flaw of the human condition.

Particularly since the dawn of the internet, bad actors have financially preyed on the most marginalized in our society—those experiencing poverty, the elderly, the disabled. But there are many organizations fighting back against this kind of cruelty, and others expanding the kinds of financial products that are available—credit cards with more nuanced controls, for example, and ways of building credit that fall outside the purview of traditional institutions.