James’ Story
When the time comes, putting your parent into aged care is a heavy, upsetting, scary, complex and confronting decision.
And a lot of people – too many, frankly – are left to tackle the process on their own. Crawling through the tangled pipes of the aged care system, with a heavy backpack full of guilt, worry, fear and anxiety is enough to push most people close to drowning.
Which was why the cracks were beginning to show when Helen and Teresa first came to see me.
First Decision (Of Oh So Many)
They were both doing everything they could to help James. Helen was the eldest of James’s three children, while Teresa was James’s sister and Power of Attorney. James had just entered aged care at 90. His home, though worth close to $2 million, was in disrepair, filled with four decades of possessions. He had a small parcel of bank shares.
And that was it.
The management of all these bits and pieces was being left to Helen and Teresa, who had been involved every step of the way. She and Helen had both lived with James at different points and tried everything to keep him at home. But it became too much.
They made the difficult decision to move him to aged care.
The decision to move him into care brought waves of guilt, layered over a deep sense of responsibility. They weren’t sure what to do next. Worse, they weren’t even sure who to talk to. And when this decision is just the first of many, not having somebody to help navigate the process makes it so much more difficult.
Too Many Decisions. Too Little Clarity.
Helen and Teresa were quickly overwhelmed with the volumes of aged care questions and decisions.
They had questions around the fees (RAD, DAP, means-tested care) and how they worked.
Were they supposed to sell the shares? And what would that mean – for James today and in the future? For his tax, Centrelink and financial needs?
They wondered how they’d pay James’s fees, seeing that the house couldn’t be sold overnight.
If they couldn’t sell it, were they meant to chip in from their own pockets?
And what if they did sell it, but then he got better and could come home to the house he had such strong ties to? While unlikely, the possibility weighed heavy.
Ah, Family
To make things harder, Helen’s two brothers, Keith and James Jr., were not there to help. They hadn’t helped with care, so it wasn’t surprising that they weren’t helping with the aged care process.
What interest they did show seemed purely about ‘their’ inheritance, which she found repulsive. She’d read all about ‘inheritance impatience’ and feared what it meant for her family. This dynamic added more stress to every single decision.
How We Can Help
After spending more time searching Google for answers to their aged care questions, Helen and Teresa worked out that financial advisers can help with their aged care questions.
After Googling for ‘aged care financial adviser’, they found Nathan and arranged a meeting.
Leaving James in his new room at the care facility, they met at the café downstairs.
“How can I help?” Nathan started with.
And Helen and Teresa started listing all of their questions and worries.
It quickly became clear that their main concern was the looming invoice from the care facility. They absolutely were dreading it.
Because they had no real clear plan on what they were going to do about the RAD, or Refundable Accommodation Deposit.
One idea they’d had was that Helen would refinance her home to pay off as much of the RAD as possible, and then Teresa would ‘chip in where she could’.
Nathan immediately spotted the issues and intricacies this plan raised:
Lending money as a Power of Attorney is incredibly complex and easy to get wrong (with serious consequences)
Paying a lump sum towards a RAD also impacts James’s cashflow needs into the future, as well as potentially affecting Centrelink calculations
All of this will then flow-on and affect the fees he’s paying to the aged care facility.
Helen and Teresa’s eyebrows kept rising higher and higher until, eventually, they acknowledged just how overwhelming it all was.
Nathan went from exploring the vague plan they had in mind, to focusing on ‘next steps’ they could take. One thing financial advisers know is that getting started is the key – decision momentum is critical.
So he looked at the immediate considerations such as:
how to inform Centrelink
what would happen if they didn’t
Letting James’s General Insurer know the house was empty
Plus a lot of other, small, but important bits of homework.
It was a lot, but they left feeling like they finally understood what to do. They were grateful for Nathan’s help, but also nervous about paying the full fee, given James’s limited cash holdings.
As the meeting wrapped up, Helen and Teresa thanked Nathan but said they thought they could handle it from there.
Nathan hoped they could.
But he was worried they couldn’t.
Three Months Later
Helen called back. Her voice cracked with exhaustion.
She’d been paying $1,000 a week to help cover James’s bills.
They still hadn’t sold the shares, despite trying – that admin and paperwork involved in that was like hitting a brick wall with your knee.
She said they had at least finally agreed to sell the house, but the buyer needed a long settlement and those aged care invoices kept coming.
She was calling because they’d just received a letter from Centrelink that said that James’ care fees were about to jump to $400 a day. They didn’t know if it was accurate - Centrelink paperwork was confusing.
They weren’t sure who the correspondence nominee was. Or even what one was, if they were telling the truth.
They didn’t have the time or emotional capacity to figure it out.
They were overwhelmed.
And they were ready for help.
Nathan listened, recognising the signs of well-intentioned and capable people crashing headlong into the rigid complexities of the aged care system. After hearing Helen out, he made her a promise: “at the end of this you’ll think, ‘well, that was easy’”.
Helen laughed, then asked where do they begin.
From Pressure to Peace
From their first planning meeting, everything changed for Helen and Teresa.
Nathan:
Mapped out a clear plan with immediate steps and long-term actions to give them clarity and relief.
Lodged the right forms, in the right order with Centrelink to reduce James’ Means Tested Care Fee to its correct level.
This significantly dropped the mounting invoices thanks to the credits for overcharging.
Helped them access the deposit on the house early so they could clear outstanding debts, reimburse Helen, and fund James’ care until the sale was complete.
Confirmed what was needed to sell the shares, arranged the paperwork and made sure it was all lodged correctly. Finally getting that off the mental to-do list.
Restructured the RAD and DAP to make sure James’ pension could cover the regular invoices – while avoiding any unexpected out-of-pocket costs until the house settled.
Modelled the month-by-month cash flow, so they knew what to expect as things changed, reducing ambiguity.
Planned ahead for the proceeds from the sale of the house, ultimately placing the balance in a specialist aged care investment.
This step alone delivered James over $50,000 of income a year; tax-free, simple, and stress-free.
Yes, James would lose the Age Pension eventually.
But now, after Nathan’s advice and work, James can fund his own care and medications in full. Which means that Helen no longer had to carry the financial burden and could begin to breathe again.
The added benefit?
A clean, transparent process made things simpler from an estate perspective. With Keith and James Jr. barely involved, the fact that things were structured, documented, and fair meant fewer disputes.
Fewer headaches.
Less emotional toll.
At the end of it all, in their final meeting, where Nathan wrapped everything up, Helen and Teresa looked at each other and smiled.
“Well.
That was easy.”