Guides
Guides for aging on your own
Plain-language walkthroughs of the decisions that catch solo agers off guard — legal documents, medical choices, and the everyday support that keeps independence going. Reviewed by Shirley Chia.
Legal & decisions
Who can legally make decisions for you?
No spouse or kids to step in? The four documents that decide who handles your money and medical care — and how to keep a court-appointed guardian out of it.
Who inherits if you have no will and no family?
With no spouse, kids, or will, your state's intestacy law decides — parents, then siblings, then distant cousins, then the state. Why a will matters more when you're solo.
Final wishes & funeral planning alone
With no next of kin to authorize and arrange things, name who's legally allowed to handle your remains and write your wishes down — without overpaying.
Your digital life after you're gone
Email, banking, photos, and subscriptions live behind passwords only you know. An inventory, a password manager, platform legacy tools, and a digital executor.
No one to name as fiduciary or trustee?
If you have no one to trust as agent, trustee, or executor, you can hire a professional. The kinds you can hire, what they cost, how to vet them, and how to put them legally in charge.
The HIPAA gap solo agers miss
A trusted friend can't get your medical info unless you've authorized it. HIPAA authorization vs. personal representative vs. health-care proxy, and how to name someone who can call your doctor.
Paying for care
Paying for long-term care on your own
One income, no one to chip in. What Medicare won't cover, plus LTC insurance, reverse mortgages, and Medicaid's five-year look-back — and where to get unbiased help.
Where to live: stay home or move?
Aging in place, independent and assisted living, CCRCs, and cohousing — and how to choose early, before a crisis chooses for you.
PACE: all your care, one team
A Medicare/Medicaid program that coordinates all your care so you can stay home — the closest thing to a built-in family for a solo ager. Who qualifies, what it costs, the trade-off.
Health & daily life
No one to take you home from the hospital?
Hospitals won't discharge you after anesthesia without a responsible adult. How to plan the ride, the overnight, and the medical advocate when you live alone.
Building a support network ("aging allies")
With no spouse or kids, you assign the jobs a family does: deciders, doers, and people who'd notice. How to build that team, paid and unpaid.
The "if something happens to me" file
No one automatically knows your doctors, meds, documents, or who to call. Exactly what to put in an emergency file, where to keep it, and who gets a copy.
Loneliness is a health risk — what to do
Prolonged isolation raises dementia, heart-disease, and mortality risk. The research, and practical ways to build connection on purpose when you age alone.
Hiring a patient advocate
No family to come to appointments or push back in the hospital? You can hire someone whose job is exactly that — what a patient advocate does, the BCPA credential, costs, and how to find one.
When you stop driving
No family to drive you when the keys go? Read the warning signs, build a transport plan before you must stop, and script the keys-back conversation no one else will start.
Tech to stay safe at home
Medical alerts, fall detection, pill dispensers, video check-ins, and daily call services replace some of what a nearby relative would notice. Who sets it up with no family, costs, and dodging tech scams.
Selling and downsizing, no family
Clear out, downsize, and sell your home with no relatives to help, often on a deadline to move to care. Senior Move Managers, SRES agents, estate sales, sequencing, and dodging lowball cash buyers.
Money & pets
Protecting your money from scams
Living alone makes you a prime target — no second set of eyes on the accounts. The scams that hit hardest, the guardrails that stop most, and who to call if you're hit.
Who will care for your pet if you can't?
If you're hospitalized or pass away, who feeds your pet — and keeps them out of a shelter? An emergency caretaker, a named home, and a pet trust to fund it.
Bills paid if you're hospitalized
A long hospital stay shouldn't mean unpaid bills or exposed savings. Name a trusted contact at every bank and brokerage, automate your bills, and pick the safe way to let someone help.