Part of aging includes changes in health. While these changes may not be fun, there some great e-sources you can capitalize on to make taking care of yourself in your older years easier. Senior Planet points us toward some of the best eHealth sources, from websites to mobile apps, in their article, “Top eHealth Resources”.

Personal Health Records – There are a couple great tools you can use to manage all of your health information in one central location. You can store information like doctor visits, diagnoses, prescriptions, test results, and more online and be able to share your records with anyone. Having a central location for this information online means you can easily access it and show it to your doctor, a family member, the pharmacist, or whoever else it may be pertinent to share your records with. As Senior Planet points out, having your personal health records centralized and easily shared enables you, your family, and your medical professionals to work as a team. Senior Planet recommends Healthvault for your table, like an iPad. This is a free app. Or WebMD’s PHR (personal health record) for your computer.

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According to an article titled “Advanced Planning for your Online Life”, from Senior Planet, “Today’s seniors are more digitally connected than ever, with some estimating that as many as 34% of Americans (65 and above) use social networking sites” (Singh). Even beyond social media, think of all the accounts you may have accounts with. I’d venture to guess you may have an email, possibly a paypal, online shopping accounts, etc. For the estate planning field, your online and technology assets are as real as your shoes and socks, and planning around these digital assets has become increasingly important to consider. Just like your shoes and socks, at Family Estate Planning Law Group, we’ll make sure your personal things go to the right people, however your shoes and socks are most likely not password protected and hold sensitive information.

It may not seem like an important consideration now, after all you may only use a site like Facebook to check in with your loved ones, however even an account that you don’t post personal information with that often, still has a great deal of sensitive information about you. Protecting and having a plan for your social media and technology accounts is as important as having a plan for your bank accounts.

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You can take all the necessary steps to prepare your estate plan and finance your retirement, but one bad scam can ruin your financial plan. You’ve probably been cautioned about it before, but there are a lot of creative scammers out there who target older people. They come up with creative stories and pretend to be a family member, or they pretend to be affiliated with the government, among many other tactics. While it can be hard to know you’re being scammed, you can start with knowing the top 10 tactics, as discussed by the National Council on Aging in their article, “Top 10 Financial Scams Targeting Seniors”.

1) Medicare/health insurance – Since every U.S. citizen over 65 qualifies for Medicare, this is an easy scam for perpetrators to attempt as it requires little research. Typically, a scammer will pretend to be a Medicare representative and fish for personal information. They are also known to provide fake services at makeshift mobile clinics and then bill Medicare using your personal information to collect money.

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As almost everything we do seems to go digital, the conundrum of how to plan to pass on our digital lives has become more and more complex with every new app, online service and social media profile. An article from Seeking Alpha, “Estate Planning: Don’t Forget Your Digital Assets!”, seeks to highlight just how big an issue this has become for most families.

Dealing with digital assets can be a huge headache for heirs, but a little planning and coordination with your estate planning attorney and the custodians of your online accounts can go a long way toward minimizing the stress your heirs will deal with after your death.

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