I recently wrote about the challenges faced by older individuals without spouses or children they can name as agents on their estate planning documents. The number of such “solo agers” or “elder orphans” is growing, especially among women.
The Growing Challenge
According to the annual Profile of Older Americans issued by the Administration for Community Living (recently abolished by the Trump administration), fewer than half of women and two thirds of men aged 65 and above are currently married. Almost a third of older women and just over 10 percent of older men are widowed. Seven percent of both older women and men never married and 18 percent of older women and 15 percent of older men are divorced or separated. It’s this last statistic that has changed significantly in recent decades. In 1980, just 5 percent of older men and women were divorced or separated.
The number of widowed men and women unsurprisingly increases with age. The US Census Bureau reports that 43 percent of women 75 and older live on their own as compared to 27 percent of those between the ages of 65 and 74. All these numbers are likely to increase as the marriage rate in the United States decreases. According to one study, the proportion of adults between the ages of 30 and 49 who have never married increased from 17 percent in 2000 to 29 percent in 2021.
The Book
So what can all these solo agers do in terms of estate planning? Fortunately, fellow Massachusetts elder law attorney Kathy L. McNair (and long ago, my student at the Boston College School of Law) has published a guide, The Solo Senior’s Guide to Thrive: Planning for Legal, Financial, and Personal Well-Being. It explains the basic legal documents everyone should have in place — will, durable power of attorney, health care proxy, revocable trust — as well as those needed for special situations, such as planning for a pet or a child with special needs, all in easy-to-understand language.
The book also includes a basic introduction to financial and long-term care planning, as well as sections on housing alternatives, finding community and end-of-life care. The language throughout is extremely approachable and includes stories about Attorney McNair’s clients and her own personal experiences, both seeking resources for clients and within her family.
Finally, the book concludes with a workbook that solo agers, or anyone for that matter, can use to get organized and provide the basic information anyone stepping in to assist will need. The workbook is also available at no charge on a new website Attorney McNair has created at www.SoloAllies.com.
We will need more tools like this as the number of solo agers continues to grow.