Looking after Your Parent’s Finances when Alzheimer’s Disease Strikes

Looking after Your Parent’s Finances when Alzheimer’s Disease Strikes
  • Opening Intro -

    Your mother's behavior is drastically different than from the last time you saw her two years ago.

    Her alertness is not the same and she has plenty of unpaid bills. You bring her to the doctor and he tells you that your mother has Alzheimer's disease.

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It is in its severe stage, so now you’ll have to step in and take over your mother’s finances. You’ve never experienced this before and you don’t know what to do. Many adult children are in this situation so you shouldn’t feel alone. There are some resources available to assist you. Here are some strategies for financial planning when an aging parent cannot handle their finances due to Alzheimer’s.

Getting Power of Attorney

This is the first step in legally taking over your parent’s finances when his Alzheimer’s symptoms render him unable to look after his own finances.

If you have siblings, the process of getting guardianship over your parent’s finances might be challenging since they may not think their parent is incompetent in the area of financial matters. Once you’re given power of attorney you can proceed with managing your parent’s finances.

Watch Out for Financial Scams

Scam artists often target seniors in the hopes of getting money from them.

If your loved one has a mild form of Alzheimer’s and has been talking about signing up for suspicious sweepstakes contests or payday loans, you need to investigate those offers to determine if they are legitimate or not. There have been numerous stories of seniors who lost a lot of money to money scams.

You can also check their bank statements and credit reports to look out for suspicious activity.

Get An Idea of What Your Parent’s Regular Expenses Are

Another important part of looking after your parent’s finances is having an idea of what his regular expenses are. Gather his bills and find out how much he pays each month on them. Then you want to write down the due dates of each bill along with the amount so that you can pay them on time and avoid interruption of the services your parents get.

To save more time, you can pay the bills online if you have a computer. Take a look at how much your parent spends monthly on groceries by looking at the receipts your parent kept.

Be Transparent With Your Parent

Some parents will be suspicious and sometimes falsely accuse their adult children of messing over them financially.

You can solve this problem by being honest when discussing finances with your parent. Show him proof that you are paying his bills and ask him if there is anything else that he would like you to handle for him regarding finances.

In conclusion, when you follow the above mentioned steps, your parent’s finances will be in better shape.

 

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Categories: Financial Planning

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