I would like an opinion as to whether it is safe to hire a senior assistant to take care of bills that are not on automatic payment. For a few bills, checks must be written such as those that are not regularly occurring. In the event a loved one cannot do that and a POA does not live locally, would this be safe if a person from a senior agency was vetted or is it likely a person would steal funds? My Aunt loved her aide of several years but after her death the family learned she had been stealing regularly by asking my Aunt to sign several checks.
Just have the bills sent to your address, and pay that way.
Once the condo was sold, the only check I had to write were her monthly MC cost, trust funds to deposit into checking account and tax prep. If anything else came up, so long as I had a name and address to mail payment to, into the Bill Payer system it went.
I wouldn't hire someone to do that, esp if you are not local to where they are. It's much harder to oversee and deal with issues that might happen. The Bill Payer systems are SO much better! I even used it to pay the nail trimmer who would cut mom's nails (or claimed to.) She didn't even mail a bill, she emailed a statement to me. Oh, I also wrote checks to the hairdresser place, but it was on the way to mom's place and other local businesses, so not a big deal to do that every 5-6 weeks. I think once I wrote one to the dentist, but later put them into the BP system as well. Her federal medical and Medicare generally covered everything, but if some medical billed us legit, I would just add them to the system as well.
Have the bills mailed to you. If you use E-billing, that would go to your email - I preferred regular mail for bills and statements, so sadly I have boxes for every one of the last 6 years now... Just in case one of the bros decides to ask Qs now (personally I'd prefer to just tell them go pound sand - you criticize, don't help, hinder all the time, cause problems AND don't visit your mother? PFFFFT!) But if they decide to be real jerks and go legal, I don't have to scramble to get anything, it's ALL here!
Have the mailing addressed changed so you have bills, receipts, etc and put it all into the BP system. So much easier, less hassle and generally FREE!
I am not suggesting that this is a good idea for others, but I'm just mentioning that, thankfully, there ARE some honest people out there. In our case, this was a recently-retired school teacher who, with her husband, was financially secure, and this was in a small village in which people knew each other.
Is it possible to have the bills sent to you or who ever is POA? the bills could be mailed or emailed and the check could then either be written and mailed or an e-check sent from the account.
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