Wealthy investors’ greatest fear could become their children’s worst nightmare.
Investors with at least $1 million in assets worry most about becoming a burden to their children, but are failing to adequately plan for their own long-term care, according to a UBS survey of 1,849 investors.
Burdening children, at 42 percent, topped surviving on life support (34 percent) and living in a nursing home (15 percent) as the greatest fear for investors.
Perhaps that’s because 47 percent of investors caring for their own parents describe it as a "heavy burden."
UBS attributes the difficulty of providing long-term care for elder family members to longer lifespans, more costly and complicated care choices and the geographic diaspora of families.
Just 39 percent of investors have talked with their children about who will take care of them in their old age, and only 50 percent have factored health-care costs into their overall financial plan.
Only 36 percent of wealthy investors say they plan to turn to family for support or care as they age, with the vast majority preferring to seek outside help.
If their intentions hold true, wealth investors are disrupting the traditional long-term care scenarios: 74 percent remember their grandparents relying on family for long-term care and 57 percent say their parents did the same.
