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Choosing a real estate agent for your own home is one thing — you know the area, you've probably got an opinion already, and if it goes wrong, it's your own decision to live with. Choosing an agent to sell a parent's home, often on their behalf and under time pressure, is a different exercise entirely. That's where agent tendering comes in. What agent tendering actually means Agent tendering is the process of approaching a shortlist of local, reputable agents and asking each

One of the first questions families ask once an aged care move is on the table is also the hardest to answer precisely: how long is this actually going to take? The honest answer is "it depends" — but here's a realistic, stage-by-stage picture of where the time typically goes, so you can plan rather than guess. Stage 1: Decluttering and sorting (2–6 weeks) This is usually the stage families most underestimate. Sorting a lifetime of belongings — deciding what's kept, gifted, s

If you've ever found yourself booking a paediatrician appointment and an aged care assessment in the same week, you already know what the “sandwich generation” means — even if you've never heard the term. It describes a very specific kind of exhausted: adults, usually in their 40s and 50s, raising children while also caring for ageing parents. You're not just supporting two generations emotionally — you're often managing their calendars, their finances, their health decisions

Somewhere in the middle of arranging a parent's move into aged care, a family often discovers they can't actually do what they need to do — sign a contract of sale, access a bank account, pay an aged care deposit — because no one formally has the legal authority to act for their parent anymore. This is almost always a Power of Attorney conversation, and it's one families are far better off having early than in a crisis. What a Power of Attorney actually is A Power of Attorney

Of all the conversations involved in an aged care transition, this is often the one families put off the longest — not because they don't know it needs to happen, but because it can feel like you're asking a parent to give something up, rather than offering them support. Start with their priorities, not the logistics It's tempting to open with the practical case — the home is too big, the stairs are a fall risk, the garden's become unmanageable. All true, possibly, but leadin

Of all the paperwork and decisions that come with an aged care move, the accommodation payment is often the one that causes the most confusion — partly because it's genuinely complex, and partly because it's usually the first time most families have encountered the terms RAD and DAP at all. What a RAD is A Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) is a lump-sum payment made for the accommodation component of residential aged care — essentially, the cost of the room. As the name

It's one of the most common — and most stressful — situations families find themselves in: a parent has lost capacity, there's no Power of Attorney in place, and suddenly no one has the legal authority to pay a bill, access an account, or sign anything on their behalf. Here's what actually happens next, and why it's so much harder than it needs to be. No one automatically steps in This is the part that surprises most families: being a spouse, or an adult child, or even a join

When a parent moves into aged care, it rarely feels like a planned event. More often, it follows a fall, a health scare, or the slow realisation that the house they've lived in for 30 years has quietly become too much to manage alone. Suddenly, you're making decisions you weren't prepared for. About their belongings, their finances, their home, all while also trying to support someone you love through one of the hardest transitions of their life. In my time working with famil

The first time I heard the phrase "Swedish death cleaning," I did the same thing most people do - I flinched! But after eleven years working with Australian families through some of the most emotionally complex property transitions imaginable. From deceased estates, executor responsibilities, parents moving to aged care, I've come to think it's one of the more honest and generous ideas I've encountered. Not morbid at all, as it turns out. Almost the opposite. This post is th