Is your single parent prepared?

This past year, Rob’s dad, Chad, ran into some health issues and his health started to deteriorate. He is fairly young, 63 years old. A Farewell Plan really hadn’t come across his mind with him being so young. He didn’t have the “healthiest” life dealing with alcohol and opioid addiction. He's been divorced for over 15 years and only has one bank for his deposit accounts and no investments, just tangible assets. Chad had a Will and Power of Attorney. Not a big enough Estate for a Trust, so he thought he was well prepared.

One day, Rob’s uncle goes to visit his dad and finds him unconscious. Chad had an overdose combined with a heavy drinking episode and had to go to the Emergency room. Fast forward four weeks. Chad is still incapacitated in the ICU with the future uncertain.  It started to hit home for Rob. His dad has a house, 5 dogs, utilities, insurance, a bad sump pump in the basement, bad drainage in general around the exterior of the home, this list goes on and on!

Rob didn’t even know where to start. Rob wasn’t even sure if his dad was going to live but his time was being occupied with work, family, and his dad’s “stuff.” Rob didn’t even know how to pay simple bills like gas, electric, water, trash, TV, internet, cell phone. Rob didn’t even realize his dad had five dogs nor did Rob know the health status or feeding schedule of thedogs.

Rob had no clue who his dad’s Health Insurance was through, didn’t know where the mortgage was through, or if it was escrowed. It was a complete mess and this is for an individual whose net worth is easily under a couple hundred thousand dollars.

With all this being said, Chad had a Will, Power of Attorney, Healthcare P.O.A. and a Living Will.  But none of these documents could help Rob through the simplest tasks that he needed to do for his dad. Wills and Trusts are items that make us “feel good” and assume “the box is checked” for our loved one. We assume they are ready for their Farewell Plan. No doubt these are great items to have in place for most individuals. However, these documents did not provide the detail Rob needed when he had to “take over” for his dad.

Thankfully, Rob’s dad was able to recover and has been doing great for months now! Rob was able to have his Uncle move into his dad’s home during his time away to help with the dogs and upkeep of the home. Rob ended up figuring out how to pay all the bills and keep his dad’s “life going” while he was in the hospital. Was it easy to do? Absolutely not! It was awful! Rob had to take time off of work just to figure out how and where to pay bills. After this occurrence, Rob had to come up with a better plan for when something catastrophic happened again.

Addio was the perfect solution for Rob and allowed him to input all of his dad’s assets, bills, liabilities, important information, who to contact about them, and what to do when he passes on. Addio gives Rob the opportunity to put in multiple points of contacts that he wants to access his dad’s information and any of these contacts could help “pick up the pieces” to get through dad’s estate efficiently when that day comes.  Rob rests easy now knowing that he has all of his dad’s important information in one place, organized, and ready when the time comes.