Role Reversal

HOW to manage your parents’ money when they are unable to manage it themselves.

FQueen Latifah looks after her mom’s money, the Baldwin brothers all help their mom keep her finances in check, while Peter Gallagher not only cared for his mother with Alzheimer’s for more than 20 years but handled all her bank accounts. Sadly, getting old is a fact of life and at one stage or another your parents might not be able to manage their own money anymore. What then?

“In 2011, after two years of illness, I lost my widowed mother to cancer. As an only child, the two years during which she battled the illness was challenging for both of us,” says Mike Moore, Wealth Manager of WellsFaber (www.wellsfaber.com), a Cape Town-based financial institution that has been providing quality independent financial advice to private clients for 28 years. “While my mother was mentally capable, she was not physically or emotionally capable, so among other things, I took over her financial life. My experience is common among the 40- and 50-somethings, and whilst no two family circumstances are the same, there are a few common points worth considering should you experience this stage of life.” Mike provides these tips for readers: