APRIL 16, 2007 VOLUME 14, NUMBER 42
Ironies abound as the leading edge of the “Baby Boom” generation heads into its 60s (and retirement). The generation that vowed never to trust anyone over 30 will shortly have to figure out minimum distribution rules from Individual Retirement Accounts, Medicare’s Part D coverage and its limitations, and how to deal with the physical declines and personal losses that accompany aging. A new book released this month may help them navigate some of the currents and shoals.
Authors Kenney Hegland (professor of law at the University of Arizona) and Robert Fleming (elder law attorney with the Tucson firm of Fleming & Curti, PLC, editor of Elder Law Issues and webmaster for elder-law.com) have announced the release of Alive and Kicking: Legal Advice for Boomers. The new book is available online at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble and by special order from bookstores everywhere.
“We were going to call the book Geezer’s Law, but cooler heads prevailed,” write the authors. The book is infused with humor, filled with sly cultural references, and fun to read. Dr. Andrew Weil, author of Healthy Aging, calls it “an engaging, even uplifting, book about a subject most of us who are getting on in life often avoid: arranging our affairs for our latter years to avoid medical, financial, and legal troubles. I will use it myself and recommend it to patients, friends, and loved ones.”
Topics covered include advice on health care, estate planning, divorce, remarriage, starting a business, living wills, nursing homes and more. You can read about how to protect yourself from scams, age discrimination and elder abuse. You can gain insight into the important questions that accompany the condition of aging: What can you do to make your own children treat you better than you did your parents? Will you have to give up both driving and sex?
“If you are getting older (or hope to),” write the authors, “you’ve picked up the right book.” Hegland and Fleming believe that the condition of geezerhood should not be accompanied by a loss of intellectual interest. Instead, “we’ll come and go, talking of Michelangelo, telling bad jokes, and reciting wonderful poetry: spoonfuls of spice with your maturity medicine.”
“Studies tell us that learning new things is good exercise and Alive and Kicking is one heck of a workout,” writes Joy Loverde, author of The Complete Eldercare Planner. Baird Brown, pioneering elder law attorney, describes Alive and Kicking as “a must read for anyone who wants to understand many of life’s imponderable questions,” and Professor Rebecca Morgan, former President of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys, calls it “a truly valuable resource for everyone needing to learn more about the issues that they, or their parents, will face”