How to Help Manage Your Elderly Parents’ Finances

Having to earn and spend is a constant in life, finance remains an integral part of modern-day living for both young and old. As parents begin to age, it is pertinent for children and young ones to begin to help with streamlining how our aged ones earn and spend. This is a loving duty that promotes communal and mutually beneficial stress-free living. Many of your parents’ bills may be stale, past due, or even unnecessary. Parents may even no longer have the steady means needed to pay all their bills. Therefore, doing nothing may likely increase the chances that they might fall into a financial bottleneck in old age. It is wise to start familiarizing yourself with their finances as they approach their retirement age.

In this article, we’ve put together 4 simple ways you can gradually monitor your elderly parent’s finances:

1. Take Inventory and Account For Your Parent’s Assets, Liabilities, Expenses, and Income: begin to take note of your parent’s contacts, account numbers, and the places they store legal documents like birth certificates, insurance policies, deeds, and wills. And ensure all the sensitive documents are properly kept.
2. Evaluate and Help Them Pay Their Bills: make sure you have a list of all assets and expenses before you start paying routine bills. Familiarise yourself with what their monthly expenses look like, from utilities to groceries. Help them see why they no longer need some stuff they may currently be paying for – like full bouquet cable TV.
3. Go Legal and Document When Necessary: start discussing with your parents about naming you as an agent in their power of attorney. This helps you gain the legal authority to make important decisions when your parents are unable to. Also, ask them to provide you with information about how you can gain access/control to their finances in case of emergencies. Document the bills you handle and everything you do on your parent’s behalf. Such details can help show other family members that you’re handling your parents’ affairs very responsibly.
4. Consider hiring a financial Professional: Financial professionals or attorneys can help you avoid common costly financial mistakes in this area. They can also help you make good decisions on how best to get involved in your parents’ finances especially in areas like taxation.

On a final note, understanding your parents’ financial situation is very essential as you consider their long-term care plan. However, don’t try to take care of your parents’ finances all at once especially if they are still handling some bills on their own. Instead, increase your support little by little if it’s needed. Send them gifts, take them on a trip and give them whenever you can. Remember, in the future, you’ll also reap the harvests of your generous acts of giving and supporting your parents now.