Page 14 THE MALDEN ADVOCATE–Friday, April 9, 2021 avvya yavvy eniiooravvy S iorn or a y io iori by Jim Miller How to Help Your Elderly Parent with Their Finances Dear Savvy Senior, What tips can you off er on helping an elderly parent with their fi nances? My 84-year-old father is having trouble keeping up with his bills and insurance, and I just found out that he’s been making contributions to a suspicious charity. Reluctant Daughter Dear Reluctant, Many adult children serve as fi nancial helpers to their elderly or ill parents. They provide services like paying bills, handling deposits and investments, fi ling insurance claims, preparing taxes and more. Here are some tips and resources that can help you help your dad. Start with a Conversation Taking on the task of helping an elderly parent with their fi nances can be a sensitive and diffi cult topic. The fi rst step in helping your dad is to have a respectful talk with him expressing your concerns, as you stated in your question, and off ering to help him with his fi nancial chores. If you have siblings, it can be a good idea to get them involved too. This can help you head off any possible hard feelings, plus, with others involved, your dad will know everyone is concerned. Get Organized If your dad is willing to let you help manage, monitor or take over his fi nancial aff airs your fi rst order of business is to get organized by making a list of his fi nancial accounts and other important information. Your list should include his: • Contact list: Names and numbers of key contacts like insurance agents, fi nancial advisor, tax preparer, family attorney, etc. • Monthly bills: Phone, cable, water and trash, gas, electric, credit card accounts, etc. • Financial accounts: Including bank accounts, brokerage and mutual fund accounts, safe-deposit boxes and any other fi nancial assets he has. Also get usernames and passwords for fi nancial accounts that are set up online. • Company benefi ts: Any retirement plans, pensions or health benefi ts from his current or former employer. • Insurance policies: Life, home, auto, long-term care, Medicare, etc. • Taxes: Copies of your dad’s income tax returns over the past few years. Locate Important Documents This is also the ideal time to fi nd out if your dad has the following essential legal documents: A will; an advance directive that includes a living will and health-care proxy, which allows you or another family member or friend to make medical decisions on his behalf if he becomes incapacitated; and a durable power of attorney, which gives you or a designated person similar legal authority for fi nancial decisions, if needed. If he doesn’t have these important documents prepared, now is the time to do it. And if they are prepared, make sure they’re updated, and you know where they’re located. Simplify Financial Tasks The quickest way to help your dad simplify his monthly fi nancial chores is to set up automatic payments for his utilities and other routine bills and arrange for direct deposit of his income sources. If your dad has savings and investments scattered in many diff erent accounts, you should consider consolidating them. You can also set up your dad’s bank system and investment accounts online, so you can pay bills and monitor his accounts anytime. Set Up Protections To guard against scams and risky fi nancial behaviors, consider getting your dad a True Link Visa Prepaid Card (TrueLinkFinancial. com/card). Designed for older adults with cognitive issues this card would provide your dad access to his money but with restrictions that you set on how funds can be spent. Or check out EverSafe. com, a web-based service that will automatically monitor your dad’s accounts, track suspicious activity and alert you when a problem is detected. Seek Help If you need help or live far away, consider hiring a daily money manager (see AADMM.com) who can come in once or twice a month to pay bills, make deposits, decipher health insurance statements and balance his checkbook. Fees range between $60 and $150 per hour. Send your senior questions to: Savvy Senior, P.O. Box 5443, Norman, OK 73070, or visit SavvySenior.org. 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Beacon Hill Roll Call By Bob Katzen A note from Bob Katzen, Publisher of Beacon Hill Roll Call: Join me this Sunday night and every Sunday night between 6 p.m. and 9 p.m. for my talk show “The Bob Katzen Baby Boomer and Gen X Show.” Jump in my time capsule and come back to the simpler days of the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. There are many ways you can listen to the show from anywhere in the world: • If you have a smart speaker, simply say, “Play WMEX on RADIO.COM”. • Download the free RADIO. COM app on your phone or tablet and listen online at www. wmexboston.com. • Or tune into 1510 AM if you still have an AM radio. THE HOUSE AND SENATE: There were no roll calls in the House and Senate last week. This week, Beacon Hill Roll Call reports on the number of times each representative sided with Gov. Charlie Baker on his 151 vetoes of items in the 2020 session. A two-thirds vote is required to override a gubernatorial veto. In a full 160-member House, the governor needed the support of 54 representatives to sustain a veto when all 160 representatives voted—and fewer votes when some members were absent, or a seat was vacant. Baker fell short of that goal as 46 votes was the most support he received on any veto. The House easily overrode all 151 vetoes, including 12 that were overridden unanimously. It was mostly the 31 GOP members who voted with the Republican governor to sustain the vetoes. No representatives voted with Baker 100 percent of the time. The three GOP members who voted with Baker the most times are Reps. Donald Berthiaume (R-Spencer) who voted with Baker 128 times (84.7 percent); Shawn Dooley (R-Norfolk), 119 times (78.8 percent); and David DeCoste (R-Norwell), 116 times (76.8 percent). The three GOP members who supported Baker the least number of times were Rep. David Vieira (R-Falmouth) who sided with the governor only 41 times (27.1 percent); Timothy Whelan (R-Brewster) 60 times (40.5 percent); and Nicholas Boldyga (R-Southwick) 79 times (52.3 percent). The vetoes had little support among the 127 Democrats in the House. Only 22 (17.3 percent) of the chamber's 127 Democrats voted with Baker to sustain any vetoes while the other 105 (82.7 percent) did not support the governor even once. The Democratic representative who supported Baker the most times was Rep. Mike Connolly (D-Cambridge) who sided with Baker 11 times (7.2 percent). PERCENTAGE OF TIMES LOCAL REPRESENTATIVES SUPPORTED BAKER’S VETOES IN 2020 Here is how your representative fared in his or her support of Baker on the vetoes. The percentage next to the representative’s name represents the percentage of times the representative supported Baker. The number in parentheses represents the actual number of times he or she supported Baker. Some representatives voted on all 151 roll call votes. Others missed one or more of the 151 votes. Each record is based on the number of roll calls on which a representative voted and does not count the roll calls for which he or she was absent. BEACON| SEE PAGE 18
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