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This year has been increasingly transitional for my parents (78 year-old dad and 73 year-old mom), as some health issues progress; most notably my dad's mild cognitive impairment. His challenges with writing and speech have reached a point where all of us have determined that it's time to develop a new, shared management system for my parents' finances.



Until now, my dad pretty much handled all the finances himself and my mom is understandably overwhelmed to be taking it on now. I plan on helping her and we already have the bones of a plan for managing cards, accounts, etc.



However, the part that feels beyond my scope of expertise (and my capacity) is helping my mom budget for the future. While my parents are fortunate to have a lot of savings, home equity, and some money they just inherited, and they've spent within their means for as long as I've known them. But they haven't really lived on a finite budget, and I think that my mom might appreciate having more structure on that front, as we make this transition.



My initial thought was that all of us meeting and working with a fee-based financial advisor specializing in senior/retired clients might be the way to go. (My parents have worked with a financial advisor over the years, but more of a broad based one, and my mom has never been that enthusiastic about the guy either; so this could be a time to make a change.) We have established POA, wills, and we recently worked with a lawyer to finish estate planning. But when it comes to the management of their finances, I expect that I'm going to need help getting my mom more comfortable with budgeting and such. So I'm open to any advice.

Find Care & Housing
Hope they have their living trust and POA's done..
maybe their CPA can suggest someone?
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Reply to MAYDAY
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This is a very good idea. Especially be cognizant of bills that don't occur monthly but need to be anticipated or else they might come as an unexpected jolt, like property taxes, special assessments, homeowners insurance, flood insurance, school taxes, etc. Someone who is local to her should know about how some of these are scheduled in their town or county.
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Reply to MG8522
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I'm using a fee-based fiduciary to handle and advise me on my mom's money, as I am managing everything until the end of her life. I prefer a fiduciary over a financial advisor who is earning their money on sales commissions on every product they can convince me to invest her money into. Also the term "financial advisor" has no legal definition so literally anyone with any amount of training can claim to be one. As with anything, there are great people and crooks under every name, but that's what I did.
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Reply to Slartibartfast
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heinrich57 18 hours ago
I should have said "flat-fee fiduciary planner" instead of "financial advisor." Definitely avoiding any planners with a vested interest in selling investment products.
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