Questions to ask to understand parents finances

cockerWalker

Hi, my parents are competent and pretty self sufficient, but are aging and do have a few physical limitations, with my father's memory also not being great. My father has always been the one who manages their money, investments, bills, etc, as my mother has had no interest in this. Over the last couple of years they have both sorted out powers of attorney for each other, me, and my brother (not yet activated).

They have asked me to get my head round their finances and ultimately help my mother if it should be necessary.

Does anyone have good resources or templates for questions to ask, information to gather, or similar? I'm going to need to provide the focus, as there's a bit of a tendency to digress and ramble.

My immediate thoughts are:

What accounts

What email addresses for statements, bills

How they are making payments

What other income sources

What investments

Any regular financial tasks

What insurance they have in place

I'm pretty sure they don't have any debts, but will check

What am I missing?

Thank you

Cairnpapple

The AgeUK Lifebook may provide a useful framework for capturing information.

JGB1955

I have prepared (and update monthly) a list of

all bank/savings/credit cad accounts, the bereavement phone numbers for all of those accounts, the (current) balances and maturity dates, a link to my Money 2005 account on my laptop.

I have a second spreadsheet on my laptop which includes all household expenditure (+ an explanation of how it is funded). This always projects for the next 12 months.

How to find our wills, copy tax returns, car insurance, MOT, house insurance, phone number of window cleaner, maintenance records etc etc.

3 sheets of A4 and it's all sorted. If not, I won't know!

Mands

I have the above plus flowcharts of how the money moves. It comes into AccountA, and XYZ amount is automatically transferred to AccountB on 15th each month. Funds then move to AccountC at the end of each month etc etc. I have assets in more than one country and more than one currency so potentially more complex.

I have a note regarding the funeral directors I have a relationship with and where I have a pre-paid plot.

I have a paragraph about one or two different investments/accounts which will not be straightforward to resolve and the explanation why.

Daniel54

You don’t need to activate an LPA,but would need your parent(s) permission to utilise the LPA on their behalf.I think of this as standing alongside them rather then acting in their stead

If cognitive capacity is lost then you will need to act differently.

JGB1955

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81857053#Comment_81857053

As an aside - this information is also all available to my husband (who doesn't have a clue as to how our joint 'house' account operates)! Sigh…..