How can we best protect our seniors and support their caregivers?

 

That is a question we need to ask. Our response will directly impact the lives of hundreds of thousands of Delawareans. Many of our Fightin’ Grey Hens are reaching retirement age at the same time their parents are struggling to deal with difficult end-of-life decisions. These issues will affect everyone in the family. During my time as registrar of wills, I would see family nest eggs wiped out due to the high cost of nursing care, long-term living facilities … and just maintaining basic dignity.

 

These are difficult problems – but not insurmountable ones. As registrar of wills, my office worked to: 

 

• Make probate easier. When I took office, more than 3,000 estates were stuck in bureaucratic red tape, with inheritances undistributed and legacies left in limbo. By eliminating this backlog, we were able to distribute $150 million in assets to children and grandchildren, as well as dozens of nonprofit agencies named as beneficiaries. This put money directly into the hands of the people and organizations it was meant for, not in bank accounts where it couldn’t be touched.

 

• Provide help in emergency situations. Every grieving family has its own challenges. A “speed docket” in our office works quickly and sensitively to free up funds for emergency needs, including when a family needs money to help pay for a proper burial.

 

• Create the Delaware Estate Administration handbook. The DEA handbook instituted common sense protections for families that make probate easier to navigate, and introduced a new form for simple estates – a form that can be used by about a third of all Delaware families – that reduces the probate period from months to mere days.