“We realized that he couldn’t keep the financial records anymore,” says Nurenberg, who runs the AARP’s employee volunteer program in Washington, D.C. But neither she nor her three siblings lived anywhere near their dad’s facility in Middlesex, New York. Nor did their mother, who is also suffering from dementia, know anything about the complicated records her husband kept.
So they called a professional, Jacquelyn Bell, a Rochester, New York-based CPA who wears a second hat as a daily money manager for clients such as the Nurenbergs. Instead of just filing quarterly or annual tax forms, Bell receives her clients’ mail, pays their bills, balances their checkbooks and helps them keep to a budget if they are on a fixed income.
For the families of the more than 5 million Americans suffering from Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, such hands-on services can be a necessity.
Read the article: When your aging parents need a daily money manager at Reuters
