Baby boomers and Gen Xers are decluttering their houses, sifting through paperwork and making other end-of-life plans in growing numbers, older adults, and elder law attorneys and financial planners say. Surveys from the National Alliance for Caregiving and advocacy group AARP show 47 percent of family caregivers — mostly caring for aging parents or adults with disabilities — said they had such arrangements this year, up from 42 percent a decade ago. About half the caregivers report financial hardships, including lost income due to depleted savings, because of those responsibilities.

“We’re seeing a huge spike in elder care planning,” largely driven by adult children, said Gabriel Shahin, chief executive of Falcon Wealth Planning. “Ten years ago, these conversations only happened after a crisis, now they’re happening proactively.”

More people are expected to shoulder caregiving duties as baby boomers — those born between 1946 and 1964 — age and lifespans increase. The number of Americans 65 and older is projected to increase more than 30 percent by 2050 — with these older adults making up 1 in 4 Americans by then, compared with about 1 in 10 in the 1980s.

The demographic changes are compounded by shortages of professional caregivers, typically aides or nurses who provide household or medical help that might otherwise fall to family members. Already, the number of family caregivers has increased 45 percent since 2014, according to surveys conducted by the caregiving alliance and AARP. About one-third of family caregivers have been providing that care for five years or more, one of those surveys shows.

Then there’s cost: The median out-of-pocket cost for a private nursing home room was $10,650 a month in 2024, while an assisted-living facility cost $5,900, according to insurer Genworth.

“Not only is caregiving becoming more prevalent [and] more stressful, it’s also lasting longer,” said Jason Resendez, president of the National Alliance for Caregiving. “This is not a looming crisis. This is something that people are living through right now every day.”

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