Beth Pinsker

My mom had it all together.

My mom had done all the planning.

She had all her documents in place.

I'm a financial professional.

I am an expert in this.

I have a certified financial planning designation.

We thought we were all set.

And it was so much harder than I ever anticipated to take care of the nitty gritty details of another human being's financial existence.

so far detailed like you know you might have a big picture discussion with a family member you know even if you get to it you might get to the big number like how much money do you have but not down to the level of mom do you still pay your electric bill with a check or do you pay it electronically or is it auto bill like nobody ever has that talk with their parents

It was a big scavenger hunt, and it started about three weeks after she had her surgery when she still wasn't back up to snuff and wasn't ready to resume taking care of anything, but also really didn't want to answer any questions or couldn't answer any questions.

And so I had to sit at her desk and reverse engineer her entire financial situation, make sure bills were getting paid on time, make sure anything wasn't falling through the cracks, make sure we had enough cash on hand.

All of those things just blindly fumbling through papers and trying to figure it out.

What I've seen in so many households, including my own, because I am a divorced woman with teenage children, it's all in my head.

I don't talk about it with anybody.

I don't run it by anybody.

I don't have a partner in any of it.

And even if I did, probably one of us would delegate it to the other.

So that only one person in the family is thinking about these issues for any given length of time.

And that is just a disaster when something bad happens.

I just saw this recently in a family, you know, my greater relatives.