Volume 8 Edition 1 Financial Care Services Newsletter

Online at :Permalink: https://financialcareservices.com.au/newsletters/vol-8-ed-1/ ‎

Financial Care Services Newsletter by Christine Hopper
Independent aged care, retirement lifestyle and financial advice for seniors

Volume 8 Edition 1 – 30 January 2018

How were the elders coping with the summer heat?

If your elders seemed more elderly and frailer at the family gatherings this summer then now is the time to consider their care needs.
A frailer body has more challenges in regulating body temperature. Hence the need for well controlled room temperatures and drinking lots of water. Alas our dementing friends might not remember to have another glass of water or to put on a hat before taking a walk to the shops in the lovely sunshine.

The combination of heat stress and dehydration is a quick route to your public hospital emergency room and admission to a big shared ward of distressed seniors.

Staying cool in an older home can be expensive. Yes, auntie can stay cool by running the air conditioner continuously. She only really heats up when the energy bills arrive. A whole fortnight’s Age Pension absorbed by the quarterly electricity bill.

But letting the house get hot to save on energy bills can result in heat stress to an elderly person. If the senior still has a good mind then she can weigh up the options of staying home and paying big energy bills or moving.

You might need to make the big decisions for a senior whose logic is fading. One option is to step up the in home care by having the family and external providers visit more frequently in hot weather to encourage fluid consumption.

Another option is to outsource the whole heat strategy management as a little ‘respite care’ away from the overheated home. The kind aged care facility staff can encourage attendance in the nice air conditioned lounge room and consumption of refreshing cool drinks.
A lady who was lonely at home and silently burdened by domestic duties could be happy to stay on as a ‘permanent’ aged care resident. In contrast’ a guy who is used to being the focus of a diligent housekeeper might want to return home to more individualized care after a short spell of ‘respite’ care.

Easy steps to ‘respite’ care

1 Have an ACAS done just as a backup plan for family emergencies. If the “Respite Care’ box is ticked on the ACAS then you have the permit to ask for a fortnight of respite care in a Commonwealth subsidized aged care facility.
2 Contact your preferred aged care facilities and ask for emergency respite care. If the facility is currently allowed to take more ‘respite’ clients and has vacant beds then you could have immediate admission.
No ACAS means no Commonwealth subsidized place. Many private SRS homes are happy to provide short stays at full cost.

Remember Melbourne has more aged care beds available than seniors seeking residential care in summer.

Before you convert that ‘respite’ stay into permanent residential aged care get expert financial advice from Christine at Financial Care Services.
Permanent aged care residents usually pay for their accommodation and at least part of their hands on care. These costs are substantial. Accommodation costs vary greatly between aged care facilities.

Financial Care Services your specialist aged care financial adviser

Financing residential aged care is complex; if you sell the former home to pay a Refundable Accommodation Deposit, the aged care resident’s Age Pension or ISS from DVA, might be reduced but if you lease the house the ongoing Pension plus the rent might not be enough to cover the daily fees.

Christine can help you understand the level of aged care accommodation price that your family member can afford. In practice, the accommodation price does not always reflect the quality of the place and the care offered. Specialist aged care financial advice before committing to an aged care place can save you money and later stress. Call Christine now on 03 98080338 to start your aged care advice.

Independent aged care financial planning advice services

Financial Care Services is an independent financial advisory service specialising in retirees of modest means and aged care entrants. Our core values of working with clients in their lifetime financial planning supports claiming DVA and Centrelink entitlements. Financial Care Services charges fees based on the work involved in advising you about pensions and aged care financial solutions and arranging your investments.

Christine at Financial Care Services understands both the DVA and Centrelink Pensions systems and the Commonwealth aged care fee arrangements.
A consultation with Financial Care Services helps you understand your potential retirement living and aged care costs together with the DVA and Centrelink implications of rearranging your assets or selling the former home.

Call Christine on 03 9808 0338 to make an appointment for a consultation.

Financial Care Services is licensed to offer investment strategy advice and to assist you to invest. Financial Care Services does not base fees on the value of your assets nor do we accept any commissions or payments from other service providers. Christine also helps clients complete the Centrelink paperwork for aged care entry. She can read the Resident Agreement with you to help you understand your aged care commitments.

Respecting the privacy of your personal information

Financial advice must be based on your personal situation taking account of your current position and your future needs. Clients of Financial Care Services provide us with personal information and some sensitive personal information as a basis for our advice.

Financial Care Services asks for your personal information such as your date of birth and residency periods in Australia, to assess if you are likely to be eligible for an Age Pension.

Some sensitive personal information is needed as a basis for estimating how much Age Pension you could be paid. Your ‘personal circumstances’ such as who you live with and whether you own or rent, your home impacts on your Age Pension amount.

Even more financial information and sensitive information about your health status is needed to Illustrate your costs of residential aged care.
At Financial Care Services, we are very aware that you are providing us with personal information that you might not even want to share with your immediate family members. Financial Care Services respects your privacy and protects the information that you give us.

Emails between Financial Care Services and our clients are retained in our electronic records. The Financial Care Services accounting system is maintained on our own internal computer system not in the ‘cloud’. Paper based files are also maintained for all clients. These are stored securely in our locked office. The Financial Care Services’ website does not have any login portals for clients or service providers.

All new clients of Financial Care Services are provided with a copy of the Financial Care Services Financial Services Guide for Christine Hopper and the Financial Care Services Privacy Policy Statement. Our business terms are that no client consultations can be started or client data files read until we have received a copy of the new client’s signed “Acknowledgment of receipt of the Financial Services Guide and Financial Care Services Privacy Policy Statement” and your agreement to the fees scales in the Financial Services Guide.

The current Privacy Policy Statement is available on the Financial Care Services website.

Australian Privacy Principles and the Privacy Act

Financial Care Services handles and secures your personal information including your sensitive personal information, in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles. You can read the Australian Privacy Principles on the website of the Office of the Australian Information Commission at oaic.gov.au

New Data Breach laws

New Data Breach laws have recently been included in Commonwealth Privacy Act. Effective from 22 February 2018, you must be informed if your privacy has been breached in a way that could result in serious harm to you.

A ‘data breach’ occurs when personal information is accessible to people who should not be allowed to see it.

For example, if a business becomes aware that the credit card numbers and recent purchase records of its customers has leaked it must promptly inform those customers and tell them how to protect themselves from further harm. The business that had its customer data leaked would advise its customers to contact their credit card providers fast.

Any business that suffers a ‘data breach’ must also inform the Office of the Australian Information Commission about the data breach and what steps the business has taken to secure its data and help customers whose data was breached.

Financial Care Services Privacy Policy Statement Updated

The Financial Care Services Privacy Policy Statement has been revised to include a reference to the Data Breach requirements of the Privacy Act.
As the holder of an Australian Financial Services Licence Financial Care Services must display its current Privacy Policy Statement on the website.

Your feedback please

Satisfied clients are our greatest ‘advertisement’. Our clients regularly provide wonderful verbal reviews, but we also welcome written reviews and if you would like to share your thoughts, please visit our Reviews page. Please tell us and other families how Christine at Financial Care Services helped you through the challenges of aged care entry.

Other seniors want to know that you were guided through the wonders of Centrelink Pensions and retirement village or aged care entry.

To arrange an appointment for further confidential, independent and professional advice about DVA, Centrelink, lifestyle or financial issues please contact Christine Hopper 03 9808 0338.

_______________________________

Financial Care Services

Christine Hopper
Financial Care Services Pty Ltd
Independent aged care, lifestyle and financial advice for seniors in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Australian Financial Services Licence Number
299570 (check this at www.search.asic.gov.au/fsr/flb.html)
Authorised Representative Number 252529 (check this at www.search.asic.gov.au/fsr/far.html)

Telephone – call +61 3 9808 0338
Email – contact info@financialcareservices.com.au
Address – mail to 172 Warrigal Road, Camberwell Victoria 3124
Website – visit financialcareservices.com.au
LinkedIn – connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinehopper1
LinkedIn Company – follow https://www.linkedin.com/company/financial-care-services/
Facebook Page – like https://www.facebook.com/fincareservice
Twitter Feed – follow https://twitter.com/fincareservice
Past newsletters – see http://financialcareservices.com.au/newsletters/
Newsletter – subscribe http://eepurl.com/js41T

Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is of a general nature only and does not constitute “financial advice”. You should obtain your own personal financial advice before investing any money or moving in to any retirement village, lifestyle community or aged care facility. Financial Care Services is licensed to provide financial advice to individual clients based on their personal situations.

All eligibility for Commonwealth benefits will be determined by Centrelink or DVA, based on your personal position as documented and the legislation and Regulations in force at that time.