How to Keep Control of Your Elderly Parent's or Spouse's Assets

Often, an elderly parent or spouse may have always solely owned and controlled his assets for the benefit of himself or a spouse. But his sudden death or incapacity can prevent those assets from being used by the very people he wanted to help. This article explores what's in jeopardy and how to quickly remedy the situation.

-Loss of control comes from sole ownership

Suppose you're caring for your aging parent who owns everything in his or her name only. If he dies, his assets become part of his estate. You can't access any of his bank accounts to pay for the funeral expenses. And this is especially true if he has no valid will.

Or suppose your spouse who likewise controls everything in his name becomes seriously ill and unable to communicate. You can't access his account because it's solely under his name.

Or, suppose you can't afford to take care of an aging parent and put him in a nursing home. The funds deposited in his bank accounts - which you don't have access to - will be taken by the nursing home as payment for providing shelter and healthcare services. There's little one can do once your parent is in a nursing home to protect assets in his name. They and the income they generate will be used to pay for the nursing home facility before Medicaid will pick up the cost for free.

So, under sole ownership, the control of your disabled or dead parent's or spouse's assets is in someone else's hands. And that's probably not what your parent or spouse would have wished.

-Prevent Loss of Control through legal access

For emotional reasons, it's common to want to put off making even simple financial arrangements for the protection of a loved one's assets. But delaying to do so is unwise. Begin today to eliminate the jeopardy that assets and accounts solely in your love one's name are subject to.

Here are things you can do to prevent loss of control:

* Explain the jeopardy of leaving assets solely in your love one's name to your loved one, then
* Add your name to any bank account that your elderly parent or spouse has
* Have an attorney draw up a durable power of attorney for the finances of your loved one
* Initiate a durable power of attorney for health care of your loved one in case he or she becomes incapacitated.

Doing the above will keep the control of your love one's assets in the family should he become ill or die. That's because you'll be able to use and control those assets yourself to handle those situations that will inevitably arise.

Setting up a living trust will keep your loved one in charge, but allow you to take over in case of death or illness.