Steps to Prepare for Alzheimer’s

For adult children, taking on the role of financial caretaker for a parent is often the first step of the role reversal. Losing autonomy is devastating for the parent with encroaching dementia, so these matters need to be handled delicately and early on. Some tips for doing so include: 

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    • Set up some safety mechanisms. For example, you can set up automatic bill payments or request different creditors to notify you if a bill is past due.
    • Prepare a durable power of attorney and trust documents before your parent loses capacity to do so.
    • Consolidate accounts and set routines to make transitions easier and less confusing for your parent.
    • Research and hire help. Different companies offer money management programs for the elderly, charging a percentage of assets for the services.

By planning early and discussing these hard-to-talk-about issues, you have a better chance of avoiding emotional damage and preventing your parent from being taken advantage of.

See Tara Siegel Bernard, Stepping in for a Parent with Alzheimer’s, N.Y. Times, Nov. 5, 2010.

Special thanks to Joel Dobris (Professor of Law, UC Davis School of Law) for bringing this to my attention.