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Business & Tech

Newly Found Financial Incompetency May Be Warning Signs of Alzheimer's

Sound legal and financial advice is recommended to combat this issue.

Have you noticed any changes in a family member's ability to manage their money? For instance, your dad was very thrifty and kept the household budget and checkbook balanced, but, now, is losing money to schemes that don't pay off [1]?

It is a very early and important sign of dementia or Alzheimer's when a person's ability to manage their personal finances becomes affected [2]. By the time it is diagnosed, it may have already affected their future.

If you are a family caregiver, you may want to explore some ways to protect your loved ones from possible predators or just from themselves.

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One of the things you may want to do to make sure retirement or passive income stays intact would be to get legal and financial advice on how to handle the situation. In the case of someone used to handling their own finances, you may work out a system to leave a small amount of cash to allow them to pay some bills, but leave the big decisions with someone else. This might require a legal power of attorney for the bigger decisions or even a trust account.

Be sure you have an idea of what it might mean when you have a medical diagnosis of your loved one's health and the impact on their finances. You definitely don't want to have a financial deficit in providing the right care or not having the right proxies in place for medical care. These are all things that can be taken care of early on with a team of professionals. Reverse mortgages, revisions of wills, long term care policies are all options that are available. Just be sure that you get your adviser to sit down and explain fully the provisions and know your expectations of what the care should be for your loved one. Typically, most financial advisers haven't the capability to give family members any advice on what to do if the client is in a diminished capacity to make proper financial decisions.

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There are some suggestions I could offer, if you feel in need, so please contact me directly at yrfinancialdestiny@gmail.com. Any questions or requests are completely confidential and secure.

As always, contact your financial adviser or attorney to make sure you are doing the right thing in your situation.

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