Part B - Organized Your Loved One's Finances
As an agent of your loved one, you need to find all the financial information you need which include -
- All bank and brokerage accounts
- Social security payment information
- Retirement benefits statements for pensions and retirement accounts such as 401k, IRA, etc.
- Copies of insurance policies, including health, life, disability, long term care, auto, and homeowner's policies
You can look at your loved one's tax return to review the interest and capital gains reported to IRS to find out any financial accounts missing.
Next, you need to gather all the expense information of your loved one, which include:
- Monthly bills for medical care, credit cards, other basic living expenses such as food, utilities, etc.
- Your POA provides you the authority to contact local utilities and other creditors to get information.
- To see if your loved one qualifies for any benefits program, visit https://www.benefitscheckup.org/
In our next blog post, we will discuss common issue Part C.