Talking to aging parents about financial responsibilities

[Kuan]

Every Christmas my wife's parents get older. He's 70, she's 64. (note this is not my problem, it's never my side of the family which has problems) One of the guys manages an insurance agency office. Sure, he may have a different motive, but given his unique position, he sees a lot of crap happen when older folks neglect to protect their assets at the end of their lives.

Anyway, they seem to think that their money and finances is nobody's business. We know they're not sitting on a huge nest egg so there's nothing in it for us. We want to make sure that if something catastrophic happens that they still retain possesion of their assets, but more important yet, we want to make sure that the family is not saddled with a financial burden should something happen.

Right now all we want to do is to start the conversation. Any ideas?