They Took Care of You — Now It’s Your Turn?

Many cultures expect grown kids to care for their retired parents. In some states, believe it or not, it’s actually the law. They’re rarely enforced, but they’re still laws.

Known as filial responsibility laws, the issue of who, exactly, is going to take care of America’s elderly is becoming increasingly important with an aging population that isn’t particularly well prepared for retirement. Adult children may run into the state’s own laws as well as Medicaid policies that determine who’s responsible for the care costs of aging parents.

After a Medicaid recipient dies, any money remaining in a trust can be used to reimburse the benefit program — i.e, the state where the recipient lived. If the Medicaid enrollee is survived by a spouse, a child younger than 21 or a child who’s blind or disabled, the state can’t recover anything. But adult children who are not disabled may be on the hook for repaying Medicaid.

Historically, this was how states provided for the poor — previously, more than 40 states had these kinds of laws, most stemming back to the 17th century. Now, just 26 states have them on their books — and these laws can vary wildly.

Georgia’s statute, for example, simply states that a child who is “able” must support an impoverished parent. Arkansas requires an adult child to provide specifically for a parent’s mental health needs, but only when that child has the means to pay and the services are not covered by insurance. In Virginia, adult kids are financially responsible for medical bills including long-term care — but they are no longer responsible for that long-term care bill after the parent has been institutionalized for 60 months or more. Connecticut has filial responsibility laws that apply only to parents younger than 65.

In practice, states rarely force adult children to pay their parents' bills. But in 2012, a Pennsylvania appeals court ruled that the adult son of a nursing home resident would have to pay his mother's $93,000 bill based on the Pennsylvania filial responsibility law. That law, one of the nation’s oldest, has been on Pennsylvania’s books since 1711.

Bottom line, you probably don’t have to worry about paying for a parent’s health care costs. Maybe.

For a look at how the adult kids of immigrants are juggling their parents’ retirements with their own financial needs, read our reporter Mary Ellen Cagnassola’s story.

— Jill Cornfield, deputy editor

One of the best things in life? Free money. It’s called the employer match — that is, a match to your own retirement contributions — and it’s something most employers do when they give you access to a 401(k) plan. Recently, employer 401(k) contributions hit a record high, with the average employer kicking in 4.8%, according to a new Fidelity report.

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