It is no secret that being the spouse or loved one of someone with dementia is heartbreaking and difficult. The emotional struggles that you will face as you watch your loved one lose themselves and your memories are impossible to imagine for someone looking in from the outside. An often-unknown side effect is the financial situation that a dementia patient can put their loved one in.
In today’s blog we are going to talk through the impacts of dementia on finances and how a financial advisor can help combat those hurdles.
When you think about dementia you typically think about the toll that it takes on personal relationships but another, less talked about, toll is that to personal finances. A study reviewed in the New York Times has found that there are many signs of dementia before diagnosis that are directly linked to a person’s ability to manage their money. The signs often show themselves as being prone to scams, irrational spending, late payments, and precipitous drops in credit ratings. While there isn’t a set in stone way to predict a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, there are ways to keep an eye on financial habits and stop them before they snowball.
Why a fiduciary financial advisor?
Having a fiduciary financial advisor is impactful at any stage of life, but especially for those who are at risk of dementia. What does it mean to be a fiduciary financial advisor? According to consumerfinance.gov, this means that “[the advisor] must – by law – manage the person’s money and property for their benefit.” Having someone in your corner that is educated and diligently looking out for your best interest has an incredible impact at any point in your life, but when decision making and irrational logic start to set in, it is an asset. For the surviving spouse, they need someone in their corner helping them navigate decisions and look at things through an unbiased lens. It is easy to miss early signs of dementia when you are with a person every day, but a financial advisor has a much less skewed view, they are able to see the bigger picture.
What does a financial advisor have to do with dementia?
Your advisor isn’t going to diagnosis your loved one, but they are going to protect your finances from questionable decisions. A few ways that BCR Wealth can be a support system include:
- Regular check-ins on spending habits – is your household staying on track with appropriate spending? Have you seen an increase in large expenses? Your financial advisors will ask you these questions and help you review when your spending does not align with your goals.
- A second set of eyes on investments – A financial advisor will regularly review your portfolio and keep your investments in line with your objectives.
- Multi-generational planning, to get children involved when needed – With your permission, your financial advisor will keep your key family members informed when necessary.
A financial advisor close to home in Birmingham can be a sounding board for the conversations needed when diagnoses come, helping navigate the costs of care, the impacts on finances, and what happens next when you lose your spouse. Being the surviving spouse comes with a myriad of barriers, many of which Beverly Thorn discusses in her upcoming book, Before I Lose My Own Mind: Navigating Life as a Dementia Caregiver, will be published in early 2025 by Girl Friday Productions. By having a financial advisor before any of this you can set yourself up to have one less item on your list to worry about. You will have a financial partner in your corner that you can trust, by law, to do what is best for you.
What next?
If you want to know more about BCR Wealth please visit our website, BCRWealth.com. Get to know our team and check out our blog. If any of this resonates with you BCR is eager to get to know you and to show you how our team can be a part of your team for long-lasting success.
Step one in our process is an in-depth discovery, we don’t talk about what we can do for you yet because we don’t know you yet. Your team of CFPs will ask you the hard questions that play a role in how you think about money so that they can build a comprehensive plan that is tailor-made to your needs and personalized to the way you think about money. Step two is where your team will present the recommendations that you need, the steps that you need to take for financial success. Whether that is with BCR, or not, you will be armed with a set of steps in the right direction. If we don’t feel like we can justify our costs we won’t.
Reach out today to schedule your first two meetings!
Want to know more about Beverly? Check out her site: https://drbeverlythorn.com and stay tuned for her guest appearance on our blog coming soon!
A 35-year career in psychology, a field that deals with the mind and the heart, can prepare you for many of life’s challenges. It does not however, arm you with the skills needed to face the challenge of caring for and losing a spouse with Alzheimer’s dementia.
During the 7 years I cared for Walt, my late husband, I kept journals, sought professional advice, hunted guidance wherever I could find it. What I found was a desert of shared experience and self-care advice for the caregiver.
Before I Lose My Own Mind is a consolidation of what I learned, as well as a profoundly personal memoir. Worldwide, unpaid dementia caregiving requires the equivalent of 40 million full-time workers, with estimates that the need will rise to the equivalent of 65 million by 2030. In the U.S. alone there are 13 million unpaid dementia caregivers. While I am proud of my previous accomplishments, this is the experience I most want to give to these caregivers, who are coping with the grief, exhaustion, and loneliness of a challenge they never expected.
I am in the process of publishing this work and more information will be made available on this website. https://drbeverlythorn.com
