"At some point we will either be caregivers... or need them."
Before you’re in it …Let's Talk.
America's choice to plan life's aging journey.
"I wish we had planned our story when things were normal!"
"Create a plan when your loved ones are healthy."
Paying a mortgage. Saving for college. Planning a vacation. We all understand preparing for the future is important. But when it comes to planning the last third of our lives, most of us don't have a plan.
...Until there is a problem.
Starting Is Easier Than You Think
Work together to create a simple advance care plan that offers peace of mind and a calming sense of control that comes with knowing you and your loved one's wishes are understood.
-
With a plan in place enjoy a welcome sense of relief
-
Have clarity during an unexpected family crisis
-
Create a plan of action for your entire family
-
Get direction with a struggling aging family member
Chemane Rene', Gerontology Specialist & co-founder of Plan Your Story
54% of CAREGIVERS
Experience negative feelings as a result of caregiving.
62% of caregivers
Use their own savings and retirement funds to pay for care.
45% of caregivers
Report a reduction in their quality of living in order to pay for care.
27% of caregivers
Report a negative impact on
their relationship with the
care recipient.
Planning Your Story will restore balance and provide a sense of stability during a family in crisis.
A gerontology specialist with expertise in business development, healthcare and employee engagement, Chemane provides an invaluable service to the family and business community. As co-founder of Plan Your Story, she speaks regularly to educate Americans about decisions they will face at some point.
I'm a specialist in Gerontology, a mom, a business expert, a fiancée, a daughter who cares for my dad, and I'm proud to be a caregiver.
My goal is to create an environment that supports your personal, professional and family needs before and during your time as a caregiver.
Plan Your Story is a tool to prepare you and your family before an aging crisis takes hold. You will save your family hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars in anguish and guilt by having a real family conversation - and writing it down.
Begin your journey with my free START TALKING GUIDEBOOK. Click button to download today.
A Relevant & Timely Program
"We created this program because our crisis had such an adverse effect on every aspect of our lives. No family should have to go through what we went through. Plan your story now and you won't have to."
Chemane Rene', co-founder of Plan Your Story
Think Of This As A Gift
This is not a problem your will, trust or burial plan can solve.
Hey mom & dad... this video is for you!
Children of aging parents in crisis are often riddled with stress of guessing, and being second-guessed, about what their parents would want in a given situation.
Please don't wait until an unexpected crisis cripples your family. Start the conversation and build an estate plan while you are lucid and thriving. Write down your end of life decisions now so your family understands what you truly want.
A great place to start is our free Start Talking Guide.
50% wish they had planned sooner
At least half of caregivers & recipients wished they had created a care plan earlier.
caregivers are still working
60% are still hard at work full or part-time while providing 8-20 hours care each week.
wish action took place sooner
Estimated $8,000 to $10,000 out-of-pocket expenses could have been saved with a plan.
OVER 70% of americans
At least 70% of people over 65 will need long term care services and support at some point.
PLAN YOUR STORY FEATURES
PLAN YOUR STORY and TALK WITH YOUR FAMILY
Complete the program at your own pace, while we guide you along the journey.
Your membership includes
-
Leather 3-ring portfolio
-
Pre-printed Plan Your Story learning modules, pen and writing pad
-
Family leader's workbook and reference guide
-
Legal Living Will - Advanced Directive Program
-
Monthly live webinar engagement events
-
Weekly tips from Plan Your Story agents and industry leaders
-
Planning tools to complete your Advance Care Plan (ACP)
-
Smart-goal modules to understand your loved one's wishes
-
Access to network of aging and caregiving professionals
-
End-of-life planning tools and questions
Are You Prepared to Take On Responsibility?
Caring for your folks often creeps up on you.
The vast majority of healthcare is actually provided by families like you, not by healthcare professionals.
My dad, on the water in San Diego 1967.
More than 75% of us who care for our loved ones are women. Ready or not we are the ones who step up to care for them and most of us are not ready.
My dad and I in Reno, Nevada 2017.
Prepared to Care? Take the Quiz!
Our free quiz is 13 simple questions that help you relate to hundreds of other Plan Your Story members.
See where you stand among hundreds of other Plan Your Story members. It's totally FREE and no personal information is collected.
Research and academic sources include...
GERONTOLOGY SPECIALISTS
TOOLS TO SUCCEED
Our certified specialists in gerontology help you build an aging plan that truly helps families as they grow older.
We engage your family with tools and inspiration to create an advance care plan. A living document to guide aging decisions for years to come.
Your family will quickly understand how every aging family plan begins with a simple family conversation.
Self-guided program is designed around your family's schedule.
Printed books & publications guide your Plan Your Story journey
Online seminars & support to encourage family members
An evidence-based course prepares families for sharing parent's finances, their estate plan, goals and wishes too.
Email inspiration for a clear path to success
Reduce the impact on working caregivers who must make adjustments to their career path.
Adult children and aging parents enjoy unlimited access to library materials & conversation tools for talking.
Website tools, videos & workbook downloads
Communication tips from industry leaders
Affordable for Life
Your family cannot afford to ignore a realistic plan.
While dementia, heart attack, stroke, cancer, even falling down, are all part of the natural aging process, few of us actually put an aging plan together before your family experiences a major crisis. This is called an Advance Care Plan, and Plan Your Story includes a legal living will too.
A tool to understand your parents wishes.
-
Saves your family hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars over your lifetime
-
Costs less than 1 hour with your attorney
-
One-time expense is less than one month's premium for long-term care insurance
-
You will create a clear path to your loved one's aging wishes
"Plan Your Story is designed from the ground up to help you prepare for an aging crisis before it grips your family."
We'll ship out your program in 2 business days!
Plan for Better Control Over Your Future
-
No learning curve
-
No software to learn or install
-
Easier than you'd think to begin and complete
-
Program delivers techniques used by therapists
-
Simply open up your workbook and begin your plan
-
365 days of customer support
-
Achieve peace of mind with one simple program
-
Everything you need in one place
Advanced Directive and More
(Pew 2006, AARP 2008).
"Most people say they would prefer to die at home, yet only about one-third of adults have an advance directive expressing their wishes for end-of-life care."
Included is a simple Advance Directive tool that lets you talk with your family, friends and doctor about how you want to be treated if you become seriously ill. Advance directives are also known as living wills... and there's one included in your Plan Your Story program.
-
Meets Legal Requirements in 42 States*
-
Used in all 50 states and around the world
-
A trusted resource for people who want a plan
-
A simple tool for discussing personal wishes
*In the other eight states your completed living will can be attached to your state's required form.
Let's Talk About Legal Things
Goal setting and practical concerns are the cornerstones of a healthy family plan.
Even though plenty of us know what wills and trusts are, only 39% of us with kids have estate planning documents, and 13% believe that their spouse and kids will automatically receive their assets when they die. This is rarely the case!
Plan Your Story encourages legal planning
-
Finalize your will and advance directive
-
Determine if a trust is right for you
-
Name a healthcare power of attorney and execute with your attorney
-
Name a durable power of attorney and execute with your attorney
Reach Out!
Become part of our community with Blogs, Updates and Fun Facts!
Common Questions Before Purchase
I'm really new at this... Can I really create a plan like this?
You mention the term "Caregiver" everywhere. I'm not sure I am a caregiver yet.
You aren't alone. In fact you're right in line with 44 million other Americans out there who are providing help to their loved ones without once considering themselves as a caregiver. We believe in the truth - if you are caring for an older loved one, in any capacity, you're a caregiver. And this is a wonderful thing!
Is there an ongoing fee or monthly fees for the Plan Your Story program?
Your Plan Your Story program has no hidden costs & never expires. This one-time cost provides everything your family will need to save hundreds of hours & thousands of dollars during a lifetime.
How quickly can I begin working on our Story?
Here's what you can expect in the days after purchase:
-
Plan Your Story customer service will set up your program in the system. -
Our teams will assemble your Plan Your Story workbook and all the materials required for a rewarding journey. We'll ship within two business days of ordering. -
Once our Plan Your Story team has set up your account, we'll activate the digital tools. -
You'll have one year to access the Plan Your Story tools.
My spouse's folks are showing signs of age but are otherwise healthy. Recommendations?
We created thePlan Your Story program with you in mind. This conversation is most successful when your elder loved-ones are lucid and of strong mind. It's a plan that rewards families who are on top of the truth... we're all getting older!
The real reward lies in being emotionally prepared. It is worth having emotional preparedness for ourselves, our families and our overall wellbeing.
We often throw out the quote that says it all...
"I wish we would have planned our story when things were normal."
Don't be one of the tens of millions of Americans who waited until it was too late. You can do this today!
So, what do we actually cover in Plan Your Story?
Home & Family: From penning a biography and letters to family, to pet plans and funeral arrangements. Let’s put a clear plan of action in place and offer peace of mind to the entire family.
Health & Wellness: This Milemarker is a big one! From health planning to caregiving goals, the wellbeing of the entire family hinges on open communication as we discuss such serious needs for the future.
SPECIAL ADDITION: Five Wishes™ Advanced Directive Program. End of life discussions are some of the most challenging. With the Five Wishes™ program you can create a legally binding Advanced Directive and guide your family to a consensus that honors your loved-one's most sensitive wishes.
Financial Wellness: Money is a sensitive subject since many elders were brought up in a generation where money was not something openly discussed. We’re going to change this and make a successful plan!
Legal Toolbox: We’ll get you started on a qualified foundation that should always lead to a professional review. Building a legal plan before a crisis situation will insure a smooth rollout of actions when necessary.
What does it mean when you say "I'm in it?"
There are more than 34.2 million people caring for aging loved-one over 50 right now. Over 75% of these caregivers are women. You are probably one of these Americans who are caring in some way. If it's easy now, it is guaranteed to get harder. And when the challenges begin to affect our personal daily lives, we would say you're "in it".
-
You will be prepared. -
It will already be defined who does what, for how long, with whom. -
When you are at work, you are focused on your work. -
When you are home you are efficient because you know what needs to get done; the tough personal decisions have already been made. -
There’s not the added stress of “what to do” in a family crisis.
-
-
You will be emotionally prepared which will create calm instead of chaos with everyone you touch - from your family, your boss, to health care professionals. -
Don’t wait to take control. Adult children in a crisis regret waiting and doing nothing until they are often forced to hire a lawyer and get a court order via a guardianship to get into the parent’s accounts. This is very common, very expensive and emotionally difficult. -
We created this program because it had such an adverse effect on every aspect of our lives in ways we couldn’t imagine. No family should have to go through what we went through. Plan Your Story now and you won’t have to.
Where is your program for CEO's and HR managers?
Plan Your Story began as an employee wellness program focuses on helping parent caregivers reduce the impact of caring for an aging parent with family-ready tools, intuitive programs, educational videos and support systems.
About Us
Our goal is to create an environment to support the personal, professional and business needs of an adult facing the responsibilities of caring for another adult.