Managing the financial affairs of a parent

[Anonymous]

What expenses of your parent caught you by surprise? We are about to take on the responsibility of financial power of attorney for my FIL. He has extremely limited income, and his SSDI is what will cover his living facility/food/meds. What expenses have caught you unaware?

[Anonymous]

My MIL was in long term care nursing home. Big expenses were replacing things that were lost like glasses, clothing (I had to do a full replacement every six months as they got lost or worn out), and things not covered like hair cuts, podiatry (medicare and medicaid will not cover that) and burial. I would do legal guardianship over POA.

[Anonymous]

I had financial POA for my mom who was in home hospice for 7 months with 24/7 CNA care. The CNA expenses won't be your problem yet, and knock wood never.

But if your parents are at the stage where they need you to step in, look out for stuff! We found my mom hadn't paid her mortgage or condo fees for three months and the condo was starting to take action. The condo board was completely understanding when I took over and explained that she had glioblastoma, so no long-term consequences there.

Then there were a bunch of picky little things. For example, she had two two-year subscriptions to the New Yorker from the same magazine bundler in Florida--I shamed them into refunding her money. She had a bunch of subscriptions that she paid monthly but didn't use, for example to a former phone service for elderly at risk of medical events. Her Citibank credit card owed her $5,000, not the other way around (my guess is that she started out overpaying by maybe $100, then when the next bill came and she saw $100 she sent them another $100 and it spiralled to $200, $400, $800, and so on).

It took about 3 months to get a full grip on her financial situation. She had a small annuity from a college that paid out quarterly. She had multiple pensions from my deceased father. I think her insurance policy mailed info quarterly. Et cetera!

Just have a lot of patience!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had financial POA for my mom who was in home hospice for 7 months with 24/7 CNA care. The CNA expenses won't be your problem yet, and knock wood never.

But if your parents are at the stage where they need you to step in, look out for stuff! We found my mom hadn't paid her mortgage or condo fees for three months and the condo was starting to take action. The condo board was completely understanding when I took over and explained that she had glioblastoma, so no long-term consequences there.

Then there were a bunch of picky little things. For example, she had two two-year subscriptions to the New Yorker from the same magazine bundler in Florida--I shamed them into refunding her money. She had a bunch of subscriptions that she paid monthly but didn't use, for example to a former phone service for elderly at risk of medical events. Her Citibank credit card owed her $5,000, not the other way around (my guess is that she started out overpaying by maybe $100, then when the next bill came and she saw $100 she sent them another $100 and it spiralled to $200, $400, $800, and so on).

It took about 3 months to get a full grip on her financial situation. She had a small annuity from a college that paid out quarterly. She had multiple pensions from my deceased father. I think her insurance policy mailed info quarterly. Et cetera!

Just have a lot of patience!

Also, she had an outstanding insurance claim for maybe $7,000 for water damage to her apartment. I had to track that down and get the $7,000 paid to her. We used it on CNAs....