Half of Americans who are 55 or older expect to provide financial assistance to family members, and 70 percent think they’ll need to help their adult children, according to a study by SunAmerica Financial Group and Age Wave.

That’s a reversal from the past, when adults typically expected that, in their golden years, their children would help take care of them financially.

“When the word ‘childcare’ first emerged, we didn’t imagine it lasting 50 years, but now, when you’re 85 years old, you may still be providing care to your 50-year-old child,” says Ken Dychtwald, founder of Age Wave. “If all of a sudden you’ve got to divert a fair chunk of what you’ve been saving to look after children and grandchildren, that could change everything.”

More than half of working parents — 59 percent — are already providing or have provided financial support to their adult children, ages 18 to 39, who are no longer in school, according to a poll by the not-for-profit National Endowment for Financial Education.

 Gannett News Service