Alan and his wife had adequate term coverage bought when they were younger but it was sized for a smaller household. Their critical illness plans were minimal. Neither had an LPA. His parents had no documents in place either. More pressingly, the family had no emergency buffer. Every dollar of income was committed.
What we didWe did not try to solve everything at once. We identified the single highest risk and addressed that first: the coverage gap that would most damage the family if it turned into a reality. We then helped Alan have a practical conversation with his parents about their own documents, and gave him a framework for doing that without it feeling like a confrontation.
Where he is nowAlan said the most useful thing we did was help him see the situation clearly instead of as one large undifferentiated anxiety. Once it was broken into parts, he could prioritise. He still has things to work through but he no longer feels like he is one bad month away from everything unravelling.
The sandwich generation does not need to solve everything at once. It needs to know which thing to solve first.
Your situation
If you are carrying a lot right now, a conversation to map out the priorities costs nothing.
Worth a conversation