Being pro-active before it’s too late

Hawaii.

In his free time, David has been watching my 97 year old mother at her home, while my sister, who is her primary caregiver, runs errands.  It’s very nice of him to do that. My mother is not in good health.  Her chief ailment is dementia, which she has had since age 81.

Both David and I have a family history of dementia.  His father and my mother made some weird transactions at the bank, so weird that in both instances, the bank teller called to tell us what was happening.  David’s father closed all of his accounts at one bank and gave the money to his friend, whom he had met in a bar.

It occurred to me that senile people don’t realize they are senile.  They think it is perfectly normal to do the weird things they do.

It also occurred to me that, given our family history, David or I could become senile, too, and close our accounts and give our money away to the detriment of the other spouse.  How in the world would I pay our bills if David did something like that?

How can we prevent that from happening?

We decided to close our biggest savings account and open two smaller accounts:  One for David and one for me.  If one of us does something foolish with our account, at least the other spouse will have money to pay the bills.

The next thing we plan to do is have a Durable Power of Attorney notarized, so that if one of us becomes incapacitated, we can withdraw money from the incapacitated spouse’s account.  This document would have to be accompanied by a doctor’s note, certifying the spouse’s disability.

Neither David nor I have dementia at this time.  However, it is wise to be pro-active before it is too late.