For the past eight years Shirley, age 77, has been handling the family finances for herself and her husband Joe. A former CPA, Joe had handled the couple’s money, but the tremors from his Parkinson’s restricted his ability to write checks or use online banking and the mild dementia Joe experiences left him confused with the daily details of managing finances. Recently, Shirley shared with her best friend that she was feeling stressed about handling the couple’s financial affairs. The couple’s CDs were maturing and Shirley didn’t have a good idea of how or where to invest the proceeds. She was also having difficulty deciphering their medical insurance statements. In the past if she had questions Shirley would call her nephew, but he’d recently moved out of the area. She figured she needed some help soon, before she made some irreversible mistakes. Shirley is representative of the 29 percent of seniors (studies vary) who require assistance handling their money and financial...

It seemed to happen overnight. Andrea entered the assisted living facility to join her 94-year-old mother for casino night. Unable to find her at the event, Andrea went to her mother’s room. She was shocked by what she saw. Her mom was sitting on her bed wearing half her wardrobe— two summer dresses, pants, multiple shirts and sweaters, many scarves and lots of pieces of jewelry. “I asked Mom why she had on all those clothes. She seemed confused and couldn’t give me an explanation,” Andrea said. “I asked her why she wasn’t at the casino night event, and she began to get agitated. Up until this point, my mom was of sound mind.” In another case, 77-year-old Barbara, who is a full-time caregiver for her husband, woke up one morning so dizzy she had difficulty getting out of bed. When she tried to phone her daughter, she couldn’t remember the number. When she finally did reach her daughter and told her what was wrong, Barbara couldn’t find the right words to answer her daughter’s...