capacity, you might consider assisting your relative to continue to live in his or her own home, if he or she so wishes. This may be possible if you can make arrangements for appropriate in-home support.
The move to a senior’s residence or long-term care facility can in itself trigger the need for a guardianship order because it removes an elderly person from familiar surroundings and an existing support system. Helping your relative live at home longer could prevent, or at least postpone, the need to apply to the court for a guardianship order.
The test for whether or not an elderly relative can and should be assisted with living in his or her own home with support is, of course, whether staying at home is in the best interests of that elderly relative. Continuing to live in his or her own home could be in the best interests of an elderly person who does not wish to move away from an area that includes his or her friends, place of worship, children, or convenient services. Removing a person in this situation from his or her home would in effect deprive this person of friends, social network, or ability to attend church. This tends to add to loneliness, isolation, and unhappiness for older people.
Many older individuals also have a strong sentimental attachment to the home in which they lived their married lives and raised their children and do not want to leave their homes until it becomes absolutely necessary to do so. The emotional impact of leaving the home should be taken into consideration if at all possible.
Prospective guardians should respect the dependent adult’s wish to remain at home as long as it is feasible to do so. This wish to remain in the home must be balanced against practical concerns such as safety, mobility, nutrition, and hygiene.
In most large- and mid-sized communities in Canada, you will be able to arrange for nurses or nursing aides to come into the dependent adult’s home on a regular basis. Nurses can assist your elderly relative with taking medication or giving injections, or with specialized medical needs such as foot care for diabetics or physical therapy. Aides may provide help with bathing, personal grooming, and transfer from bed to wheelchair. In small communities you may not have access to trained personnel and private service companies as easily as you would in a large city. However, you may find there is more support from family, friends, and neighbours who live nearby and who are willing to take on some of these tasks.
Other valuable in-home resources are companies, organizations, or individuals that will —
• bring nutritious, prepared meals to the dependent adult’s home;
• do housecleaning on a regular or occasional basis;
• transport senior citizens to appointments;
• shovel snow and clear walkways;
• rake leaves and mow grass;
• walk the dependent adult’s dog;
• do small repairs and handyman jobs;
• deliver groceries; and
• deliver prescriptions.
Another factor that will likely be part of your evaluation of whether remaining in the home is in the best interest of your elderly relative is the cost of these services. Seniors may find that living on a fixed income does not allow for the payment for these services. If you are exploring this option, be sure to contact federal and provincial government agencies to ensure that you are aware of all funding and benefits that are available.
Another good idea is to make sure that your elderly relative has a cellular telephone and that he or she has it when away from home. It can be invaluable in emergency situations. If remembering telephone numbers is a problem, program them into the telephone’s memory and show your relative how to access the telephone directory or speed-dial feature on the phone.
If you are looking into support services that will allow your relative to stay in his or her home, you might also consider whether renovations need to be made to the home for the safety and convenience of your relative. For example, you may need to have a wheelchair ramp built, grab-bars installed in the bathroom, or area rugs replaced by carpeting. Some provinces have government subsidies for this kind of renovation. Many of the suggestions in this section will also apply if you are considering moving your elderly relative into your own family home.
4. Placing Assets in Joint Names
Although this particular alternative is fraught with potential problems, it can be a good solution for a limited number of families. Using this alternative should be approached with a great deal of caution. Think it through carefully.
The basic idea is to put an asset that is currently owned only by the elderly relative, usually a bank account, into joint names. The dependent adult would be one of the joint owners and another person, usually a child of the dependent adult, would be the other owner. The purpose of doing this is to allow the child access to the bank account so that the dependent adult’s pension and other cheques can be deposited and monthly bills can be paid. The advantages of taking this approach are that it is quick to set up, simple to operate, and there is no court involvement.
Sometimes, however, this arrangement is much more to the advantage of the child than the dependent adult. There is a huge risk that the dependent adult’s money could disappear and this risk should be very carefully considered. Many an otherwise honest person has dipped into his or her parent’s funds to cover short-term losses, only to find he or she could not replace the money. In other cases, if the child owes money to a third party, the joint bank account could be garnished to satisfy a debt, causing the parent to lose his or her savings. There is little or no protection for the dependent adult in any of these situations if he or she has voluntarily set up a joint bank account with the child.
The other major problem with jointly held assets is the distribution of those assets when the dependent adult dies. Any asset that is jointly owned, such as a joint bank account, gives both owners a right of survivorship. This means if the dependent adult and his or her child jointly own a bank account, when one of them dies the other one automatically owns the whole bank account. This can have serious ramifications within a family and can be the cause of bitter disputes, particularly if it interferes with an estate plan contemplated by the dependent adult. Consider all aspects of this approach, including how it looks to other family members, before going ahead.
For example, if Mr. Smith owns $15,000, he might put $5,000 into a GIC in his own name and the remaining $10,000 into a joint bank account with his son, Jim. Even though Mr. Smith’s intention was only to give Jim access so that he could help with the banking, when Mr. Smith dies, Jim will own the $10,000 in the account. If Mr. Smith has three other children who will share the $5,000 GIC between them, they might be quite upset at the fact that Jim has received so much more money than they have. Perhaps Mr. Smith trusted Jim to divide the money among his siblings. Or, maybe he wanted Jim to own the money. You will have only Jim’s word for it. This could lead to a bitter, expensive dispute if the siblings believe that Jim influenced, or attempted to influence, their father for monetary gain.
It is never a good idea to ask an elderly relative to put his or her home (or other real estate) into joint names with yourself or any other person without ensuring that the elderly relative sees a lawyer on his or her own to discuss the transaction first. You should not attend that meeting with the lawyer. Let your elderly relative handle the matter on his or her own. If the elderly relative does not understand the transaction or its effects well enough to explain them to a lawyer on his or her own then clearly your elderly relative does not understand what it means to sign over title to the home. Legal documents should not be signed by individuals who do not understand what the documents are and the effect
