Estate of Denial:  When Roberta Battle and her 10 siblings gathered in Washington, D.C., twice each year for their parents’ birthdays, her mother, Helen Harper White, always initiated a family business meeting. The agenda included her and her husband’s wills, their health care wishes, their financial situation — the entire spectrum of issues that experts call end-of-life planning.

When White died in 2009 at age 92, the family was prepared.

“With that background, I should be better prepared than I am myself,” said Battle, 67, a retired consultant. “I haven’t even done my own health care directive. I’ve just told my daughter things.”

For millions of baby boomers and their parents, this conversation is the elephant in the room. And in today’s volatile political and financial landscape, experts say, frank discussions between the generations about money, health care and other end-of-life issues are all the more crucial.