Welcome! And Would You Hire A Financial Manager Suffering from Dementia?

****Before I start this post, I wanted to say welcome to a bunch of new subscribers. We have been moving to a new email platform and the progress has been slow. My apologies to the new subscribers. Hopefully everyone likes the new looks of the emails*****

No? You wouldn’t hire a financial advisor with Dementia? Me neither.

Every day though, people with early indications of dementia are still handling their own finances.

Nobody has diagnosed them. Their children may live far away and not know what is going on.

The New York branch of the Federal Reserve is starting to notice. They published a paper (behind a paywall but summarized in the New York Times) saying that a lot of people’s net worth declines in the decade prior to a dementia diagnosis.

Dementia can start in your 30’s and 40’s. The symptoms just may not be apparent until later in life.

Or at least the obvious symptoms.

Prior to the diagnosis, there can still be a lot of problems. People may be able to continue to pay their bills. But they have difficulty performing more complicated financial tasks.

Like balancing their checkbook.

Or evaluating investments.

Or avoiding scams.

Even if the kids notice their parent is having trouble, they may not know how to approach their parent to fix it. Nobody wants to hand over their finances to someone else – even their children. It’s like giving up their driving privileges.

Speaking of driving privileges, one of the authors of the study said their mother with dementia hid a bunch of parking and moving violations she was incurring. Those fines can really add up.

Another story talks about someone going into a car dealership and buying a BMW when they were just thinking of buying a car. They didn’t even talk to their wife about it before they did it.

The authors of the paper are hoping they can develop an algorithm to be able to track financial issues that can catch Alzheimer’s or other dementias earlier. 

I wish them lots of success.

In the meantime, it’s worth watching your own parents or elderly loved ones. Even people in their 50’s. Or maybe you or your spouse?

Talk to your family members about scams, money issues and what to look out for. Explain to them how useful call blocking on phones can be to cut down on the annoying phone calls. Or the ones that trick your parents into sending money.

Watch for large purchases that don’t really make sense. Or see if parents will talk to you before they go make a large purchase.

Gaining access to their bank accounts may be a tougher conversation. It may be worthwhile to just tell them you thought it would be helpful to have a second set of eyes on it to watch for fraud.

It would be good to talk to your parents about Powers of Attorney paperwork early. Dementia can cause people to decline rapidly. Then it becomes harder to have this paperwork done.

And all of this makes it a good idea to stay in touch with your parents. Have you called your Mom lately? She misses you. Make sure you’re reaching out.

Hal Cranmer

A Paradise for Parents

480-208-8839