Financial planning after retirement includes 1) planning for being alive but incompetent, and 2) planning for the disposition of our assets after death (“estate planning”).
As long as we’re competent, managing finances after retirement is no different than before retirement. We’re on our own, making our own decisions. In contrast, estate planning and planning for possible incompetence are highly regulated. They are the heart of “Elder Law,” a specialty legal practice.
Elder law is first and foremost about family. Google “elder law incompetence”: every listing assumes the involvement of family. (Most are about having a family member declared incompetent.) Information about estate planning is available at sites like Nolo.com, where “estate planning” is defined as “the process of getting your affairs in order so that you make things easier for your surviving family members when the time comes.” (Nolo, Estate Planning) People without family are essentially invisible in estate planning materials.
There’s considerable variation from state to state in almost everything having to do with estate law, from terminology to process to costs. Information is generally available via the Attorney General’s webpage in each state. Unless otherwise noted, what I describe is based on Arizona law.
Advance planning, both medical and financial, is hard to face and often avoided entirely. It’s especially hard when there’s no family member or individual who would naturally be relied upon in such circumstances. But advance planning is definitely in our own best interests, since the best person to do the planning is ourselves.