• 0Shopping Cart
Age Wave
  • Home
  • Who We Are
    • About Age Wave
    • Company History
    • The Team
    • In the Media
    • Our Clients
  • What We Do
    • Keynote Presentations
      • Keynote Presentations Overview
        • Presentation Topics
          • Speakers
            • Ken Dychtwald, PhD
            • Maddy Dychtwald
    • Landmark Research and Consulting
      • Strategic Consulting Overview
      • Landmark Research Overview
        • Longevity and The New Journey Of Retirement
        • The Four Pillars of the New Retirement: Tracking Update with a Spotlight on Family
        • The Four Pillars Of The New Retirement: What A Difference A Year Makes
        • The Four Pillars of The New Retirement
        • Early Adulthood
        • Leaving a Legacy
        • View All Research Studies
    • Educational Programs
      • Professional Educational Programs
        • Legacy Lessons from the Sages of Aging
        • Lifestage Navigation™ Curriculum
        • The Power of Legacy
        • Special Report: Leaving a Legacy
      • Public Educational Programs
        • Sages of Aging
        • Life’s Third Age
        • Boomer Century
    • Publications
      • Sages of Aging: A Guide for Changemakers
      • Radical Curiosity: One Man’s Search for Cosmic Magic and a Purposeful Life
      • What Retirees Want: A Holistic View of Life’s Third Age
      • Influence: How Women’s Soaring Economic Power Will Transform Our World for the Better
      • A New Purpose: Redefining Money, Family, Work, Retirement, and Success
      • Gideon’s Dream: A Tale of New Beginnings
      • The Power Years: A User’s Guide to Rest of Your Life
      • View All Books
  • Blog
  • Contact Us
  • Search
  • Menu Menu
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
  • Landmark Research and Consulting

    Pioneering research that consistently breaks new ground and makes news worldwide.

Back
View all studies

The Journey of Caregiving: Honor, Responsibility and Financial Complexity

Lifespans vs. Healthspans

Americans today are living longer lives than ever before, yet our healthspan, the time of life during which we remain healthy and independent, hasn’t kept pace. While roughly one-third of Americans anticipate that they may need care in the future, fully 70% of people age 65 or older will require long-term care at some point in their lives. Caregiving is almost inevitable: We’re likely to spend some time in our lives as a caregiver, care recipient or both.

The Coming Caregiving Crunch

In fewer than 10 years, the first Baby Boomer will turn 80. It’s in this decade of life when the likelihood of needing care is even higher, pressing us into a “caregiving crunch,” where the number of potential care recipients is growing much, much faster than the number of potential caregivers who can look after their family and friends.

Family caregiving is truly America’s other Social Security. The plummet in the number of available caregivers is cause for concern, given the magnitude of their undervalued contributions:

  • Family members provide more than 95% of the non-professional care for older adults who do not live in nursing homes.
  • While professional care providers log 465 million hours per month in community-based eldercare, caregivers looking after family and friends provide 1.3 billion hours of care per year—nearly 3 times as many.
  • The estimated economic value of family and friend caregiving is roughly $500 billion per year—4 times greater than Medicaid’s expenditures on professional long-term care.

Understanding the Challenges of Navigating the Caregiving Journey:

Amidst this climate of change, Age Wave and Merrill Lynch are launching a strategic collaboration to better understand and address the most important stages of life to better guide Americans navigating challenging journeys. The Journey of Caregiving: Honor, Responsibility & Financial Complexity, conducted in partnership with Bank of America Merrill Lynch, is the inaugural study focusing on lifestages. The study surveys more than 2,000 caregivers who are currently caring for a family or friend or have held that role in the last three years.

A Common, Complex, Challenging — and Understudied — Lifestage:

Forty million Americans are caregivers today and 20 million enter this lifestage each year. This study is the first to provide an in-depth examination of several facets of caregiving that have previously been understudied:

Physical, hands-on caregiving is an increasingly common topic covered in the media — yet 96% of Americans say that caregiving is much more than hands-on care.

  • 92% of caregivers are financial caregivers, which may include financially contributing to the costs of care and/or coordinating or managing aspects of the care recipient’s finances, such as conducting transactions, managing investments, and more.
  • A care recipient’s financial needs are likely to escalate during the course of care, with 53% of care recipients requiring complete assistance managing their finances after two years.
  • Few caregivers have discussed their financial roles and responsibilities with their care recipients. Many also don’t track their contributions: 52% of caregivers have no idea what they have spent in caregiving-related expenses to date.
  • Caregivers are compensated by knowing they are doing something good for someone they love. Ninety-one percent say they are grateful to provide care to their recipient and 77% would gladly take on the role again.
  • Caregivers share many similarities along their journey through this lifestage, including maintaining the dignity of their loves ones; feeling stress in coming up an often steep learning curve; balancing competing demands, time pressures and emotions; responding to escalating needs; and more. There are several key differences in the journey for those caregiving for a parent vs. those caregiving for a spouse.
  • The experience of being a caregiver doesn’t end if the care recipient passes away. Sixty percent of the time, caregivers expect their role will end with the death of their loved one – often not accounting for months, or even years, settling estates, paying bills, and collecting insurance on behalf of the deceased.
  • Caregiving is gendered, with women accounting for the bulk of care needed and care provided. Caregivers are three times more likely to be looking after a mother (or mother-in-law) than a father (or father-in-law).

Related Media

  • What to Do When a Parent’s Cognitive Decline Impairs Money ManagementMay 25, 2020
  • How to navigate the high cost of becoming a caregiverJanuary 27, 2020
  • Have you started saving for your parents’ old age?October 23, 2019
  • Retirement’s Dirty Little Secret That Impacts Mostly WomenJuly 12, 2019
  • Tech startups can save healthcare billions by getting patients to their medical appointmentsDecember 17, 2018
  • One Advisor’s Tips For Helping Clients With Elder CareNovember 26, 2018
  • WSJWhen to Step In and Take Over an Older Parent’s FinancesSeptember 6, 2018
  • Seven resources for caregiversSeptember 6, 2018
  • NextAvenueMillennials Are Helping Their Boomer Parents Manage FinancesSeptember 5, 2018
  • Top Needs of Today’s Financial CaregiverAugust 29, 2018

About AgeWave

Age Wave is the nation’s foremost thought leader on issues relating to an aging population, with great expertise in the profound business, social, healthcare, financial, workforce and cultural implications. Under the leadership of Founder/CEO Dr. Ken Dychtwald, Age Wave has a unique understanding of the body, mind, hopes and demands of new generations of maturing consumers and workers and their expectations, attitudes, hopes, and fears regarding retirement.

Contact us at (510) 899-4000.

In the Media

  • Do People Actually Want to Live to 100?January 26, 2023
  • The Role Of Board Service In A Meaningful Post-CareerJanuary 3, 2023
  • NewsmaxHow to Enjoy a Fulfilling Life in Retirement Read Newsmax: How to Enjoy a Fulfilling Life in Retirement | Newsmax.com Important: Find Your Real Retirement Date in Minutes! More Info HereDecember 29, 2022
  • What is a financial power of attorney, and what to consider when appointing a power of attorney?December 27, 2022
View all Media

Latest Tweets

Tweets by AgeWave
© 2023 Age Wave. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn
  • Mail
Scroll to top