The 2025 edition of Caregiving in the US, released by AARP and the National Alliance for Caregiving, reveals a rapidly evolving caregiving landscape that now includes 63 million American adults or 18% of the population provides ongoing care to adults or children with medical conditions or disabilities. This is up over 45% from 2015.

Your Role in Caregiving

Former First Lady Rosalyn Carter understood caregiving: “There are only four kinds of people in the world – those who have been caregivers, those who are caregivers, those who will be caregivers and those who will need caregivers.”

We’re living longer, not necessarily healthier, and the need for care is increasing. Systems designed to support care needs – families, paid caregivers, health care providers, insurers, employers and government programs – are all feeling the impact.

Families remain the primary providers of care, but they cannot be the sole provider of care which has become longer term and more intensive. Thirty percent of caregivers provided care for five or more years, a significant increase from 2020. On average, caregivers spend 27 hours per week providing care and 24% provide 40 or more hours per week.

Demand For Caregiving is on the Rise

As the leading edge of Baby Boomers enter their eighties and Gen Xers their sixties, we need an interconnected care approach that includes families, health systems, insurers, mental health providers and technology.

Why is this important? As the demand increases, the supply of trained caregivers is shrinking due to burnout and low pay, leaving families to provide even more care needs. Family caregivers’ financial security is impacted – missing work, promotions, resigning, moving – all effect income, savings, investments, retirement funding, Social Security benefits and more.

Many families realize the need for long-term care and all that it involves only after they experience an event that requires care.

Most of my clients fall into two categories:

• Married caring for one or both sets of parents. They have experienced the financial, emotional, psychological and physical stress of caregiving and want to protect their kids from their experience.
• Elder orphans – single with no kids or family close by.

In different ways, both groups understand the need to have a plan for long-term care.

A Plan Costs You Nothing

Here are the three questions that help to design your plan. It’s how to fund your plan that is the more challenging. We can help. Give us a call at 480.515.2715 or contact us here Long-term care expense planning is all we do.