Addressing Money Issues With Your Parents

When is the right time to start inquiring into your aging parents financial well-being? And, more importantly, when is it too late?

As your parents get older, its not too uncommon for their mental capacity to start to slip, and this can have an effect in all areas of their lives including finances. Its essential to talk to your parents about their finances before a crisis arises. Ideally, your parents should have an incapacity plan in place long before any concerns arise about their ability to make their own financial decisions.

What should this plan include?

1.If your parents have a Revocable Living Trust, it should contain provisions for a successor trustee or disability trustee to take over in the event of incapacity and manage the property thats been transferred into the trust.

2.Whether or not they have a trust, your parents should each have a Durable Financial Power of Attorney. This allows them to appoint an agent to manage any assets that have not been transferred into a trust. Depending on your parents needs, the Power of Attorney can be tailored to allow their agent to engage in Medicaid planning and to manage retirement accounts.

3.Consider beginning the transition before your parents mental capacity begins to slip. If your parents are receptive to it, you might want to suggest establishing a joint account, acquiring online access to their financial accounts, or otherwise becoming involved in their financial life before theres an urgent need.

What if your parents have already lost the mental capacity to make a disability plan? If theres no incapacity plan in place, and your mom or dad has lost the ability to pay his or her bills, manage his or her bank accounts, or otherwise remain financially independent, the solution is to have a court appoint you or another trusted loved one to serve as conservator to take care of your parents money and property. While this is not the most appealing option it can be costly and time consuming it is an effective last resort for making sure that your parents financial well being is preserved.

About the Author:

Experienced estate planning attorneys Spokane WA of the Moulton Law Offices offers estate planning and business planning resources to residence of Spokane WA. To learn more about these free resources, please visit http://www.moultonlaw.com today.

Article Originally Published On: http://www.articlesnatch.com

Tags: estate planning

, estate taxes

, wills

, elder law

, trust

, trusts

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