At the beginning of my career I began working with a new client and we bonded quickly. She was lonely, her kids moved far and wide and she was excited to talk about my growing family and hear about my children. We had a wonderful working relationship for several years and then our working relationship came to an end and I didn’t hear from her. Fast forward many years and I get a phone call from this past client, but the name of the person she was looking for was not my name; similar but a different person. The first day she called me to access her money, I explained that I had been her previous financial advisor years ago and I no longer had access to her accounts. The next day she called and wanted to upgrade her cable service, I again explained who I was and she got angry with me because she thought it was the cable company but finally said ok and hung up. This cycle repeated over several days but with increasing confusion and anger, each time it was a different provider she was calling for cable company, phone company, and a credit card company. I was concerned for her, and also at a loss as to who to talk to to get her the care she needed, but honor our creed for confidentiality. She had no close family or friends I could find, thankfully I was able to reach out to my local office of the aging and find a wonderful individual who knew the woman’s situation and followed up to get the proper medical, legal and financial care.
Stories like this are unfortunately common. What can you do to protect yourself and those you care about from falling into a similar situation?
List a Trusted Contact. This is a person you name to your financial advisor or brokerage firm. If they are not able to reach you or have concerns regarding potential fraud or diminished capacity they can reach out to your trusted contact to inquire about you. The trusted contact will not be able to make any financial decisions or changes, but would be there to protect against signs of concern your advisor may see. Inform your contact that you have named them so they are not surprised if someone reaches out to them.
Establish a Durable Power of Attorney. This is a legal document granting another person the power to act on your behalf financially and legally if you are no longer able to do so. Choosing who to name as your power of attorney can be a difficult decision. This should be someone close to you, but also a person you believe will follow through on your wishes and keep your best interests a priority. We recommend working with an attorney to draft this agreement.
It is important to surround yourself with people who care for and about you. Many people find having conversations around mental decline and estate issues very difficult, but they are important to the aging process. Letting those close to you know what you expect from them and that it is ok to seek help makes it easier on all. It is also surrounding yourself with people who will be there to see the warning signs of dementia, poor decision making, and fraud.
Plan now for these issues that are likely to happen to your parents and to you. Many of our clients are familiar with a program called “Whealthcare” that we use to guide us through these difficult conversations and decisions, if this is of interest to you, give us a call to schedule a time to chat with one of our planners.