Review: The Parent Care Conversation, By Dan Taylor

Dan Taylor is an attorney, a professional in the financial services industry, and president of his own firm, Wealth Capital Group. He is a well-known motivational speaker and coach. Taylor was busily pursuing his profession when he received a call from a family friend telling him that his father was in protective custody of the police in Danville, Virginia, about 100 miles from his home. His father had been stopped for driving erratically. He was disoriented and confused. His father had turned left rather than right, and kept driving as if he were on track. Thus the long detour.

Taylor got his father in for the appropriate medical workup. Early stage Alzheimer’s was the diagnosis. He tells, in a very touching and human way, of the agony of accepting his father’s diagnosis. He then becomes very action oriented as he tells of the conversations people need to have with their families – the conversations he didn’t have with his father.

In his book, “The Parent Care Conversation” Taylor says, at one point, “I had gone from having no time for conversation with my dad about his future care and my role in that care to having loads of time for conversations with him, in which he could no longer participate due to Alzheimer’s.”

It seems to be in Taylor’s make-up to find solutions to problems. So, he created a program called The Parent Care Solution, of which his book “The Parent Care Conversation” is a part.

Taylor’s writing style is relaxed, and he breaks up what could be an overwhelming amount of information with levity and insight. His tip boxes are often humorous while driving home important points. On page 226, his tip is “You Get What You Pay For. Beware the low-cost provider. Rule of thumb: Estate law and anesthesiology are two fields where you definitely don’t want the discounter.” He peppers the book with such tips and other information boxes. I admit to having a bias toward learning from stories, and Taylor illustrates his points with well told stories – many of them of horrors you obviously don’t want visited on your own unprepared family. The stories are part of why I was charmed by this book.

With chapter titles such as “Excuses, Excuses,” “The Big-Picture Conversation” and “Executing Essential Legal Documents and Strategies,” you know you hold in your hands a comprehensive planning book. Taylor makes learning important information interesting and even fun. “The Parent Care Conversation” is a book well worth a reader’s time. It is available through www.parentcaresolution.com and Amazon.com. Check it out.