My parents were visiting from out of state last week when my Dad suffered a stroke. While he's stabilized, he has lost the ability to speak for now and the recovery will be long. It's not clear he'll ever get back enough speech and reasoning to handle his household accounts again.
I've been a long time reader of this community's posts and have a pretty good handle on my own family's finances. But there's plenty I know I don't know about as a 38yo like RMDs and social security etc.
Dad is a proud guy. While I've been pressing for years to get more info on his financial accounts and overall situation, he kept putting it off. Mom hasn't managed her household finances at any point in their 41 years together and barely knows what accounts they have.
Based on what I have gleaned over the years, my understanding is that they have saved well so I'm not necessarily concerned about overall resources. My question is about how I go about reconstructing the whole picture when my Dad can't tell me anything.
For instance, I was able to access their primary checking account online (dad had the site's username and password in a password manager on his non-password-protected laptop I found in my guestroom). There's enough cash in there to last a few months of expenses. Do I have to add myself as an authorized user on his account to make payments from it? For other institutions he's mentioned in passing, do I call them and ask whether my dad has current accounts? Would I need some sort of official authorization like a power of attorney before they would talk to me? Which accounts should I look for first?
Right now it feels like triage but eventually I'm going to need to simplify all this so mom can be more aware of how to do this herself.
TL;DR - Dad is suddenly unable to manage his finances and can't help me reconstruct them so that I can help mom access their money and keep paying bills on time. Need advice on how to triage.
Submitted March 16, 2022 at 12:05AM by Laurelmatt https://ift.tt/q4rlQ3m
