Handling Financial Decisions for Elder Parents
Your parents have taken care of you from the very day you were born. Ah, but what happens as you all get older? The pendulum swings and suddenly you need to consider helping them out when it comes to money matters.
Criminal minds are always looking for opportunities. When it comes to seniors, they see a golden one. Just about every scam has been used to separate seniors from their money. Cities have to set up entire departments to fight the scams.
When it comes to financial crimes, most criminals are not idiots. With seniors, they look for specific targets. This is usually a spouse who is not used to dealing with money, but has to because they lost their husband or wife.
Scams come and go, but all have the same desired result. To get a person to voluntarily hand over the keys to their money. As a concerned child, you have one way of always terminating such scams.
The simplest way to keep seniors from being scammed is to take the decision making process away from them when it comes to their finances. The power of attorney is a legal document that does just that.
The power of attorney has been around for a very long time. Most of us know of it in regard to medical care. It is used all the time to establish who has the right to make medical decision if a person is in a coma and so on.
In this case, we are not talking about bodily health, but we are talking about financial ones. With the power of attorney, you became a signator on the financial accounts of your parents. This means money cannot be moved without your approval.
The power of attorney is a relatively short document, but it packs a huge punch because of the fact it grants vitally important rights to someone. A power of attorney is highly regulated and you should use an attorney to form one so you get it right.
Ah, but what about the family dynamic. Next to going to the dentist and a tax audit, nothing is more dreaded than having to talk to your parents about issues like this. Is it really difficult? Yes, but it needs to be done.
Keep in mind, some elder parents will be happy to turn over the financial chores to you. With age comes a certain acceptance level. Some, of course, will fight the decision tooth and nail. It is ultimately their life, so sometimes you just have to live with it.
Is a power of attorney legally required as your parents get older? No, but it often makes a lot of sense when it comes to avoiding problems with scams.
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