I spent today putting myself on my mother's bank accounts and arranging her finances so that I can monitor them, because she feels she may be experiencing Alzheimer's symptoms.

Timely article for me; thanks.

I see this a lot at work (dealing with banking complaints) where family members discover that their elderly relative has got into a financial mess. Unfortunately, there's little that can be done unless (a) the account holder agrees to have a third party on the account or (b) there's medical evidence that the account holder is incapable of managing their affairs - and then the family, in the absence of a Power of Attorney already in place has to go through the court to be appointed as the representative. It can be a horrible mess.

I wish we'd understood how deep a mess my dad was getting into.

I mean, who lets a tenant run up $10000 in arrears, anyway? On $500 rent? *sigh*

A guardianship is very difficult to arrange when the adult in question decides to oppose.