How To Monitor Your Loved One’s Finances in a Nursing Home

Transitioning a loved one to an assisted living facility is always a difficult decision for a family. Even though you are turning their primary care over to a staff, you still need to oversee their caregiving, including their finances.

According to data collected by the World Health Organization, 13.8 percent of older people in institutional settings reported abuse related to their money. That is why you must be proactive in developing strategies to monitor your loved one’s finances in a nursing home.

The following guide presents helpful information for you to keep a watchful eye out on your loved one’s accounts.

Ensure You Have the Legal Right To Access Their Financial Transactions

Before you can monitor your loved one’s finances, you need to ensure you have the legal right to do so. You should set up a general durable power of attorney before transitioning your loved one into a nursing home as opposed to after they become incapacitated.

Once in place, you can access all the assigned financial accounts. You’ll also be able to decide how those accounts can be used and who has the authority to access the funds contained in them.

Drafting a power of attorney isn’t the only step you must take, though. You must notify any financial institutions about the existence of your loved one’s financial power of attorney. This is particularly critical if you anticipate making any transactions on their behalf. In doing so, they may recommend that you also complete a beneficiary designation form for any accounts they have to ensure you can assume ownership over them if the nursing home resident dies.

Finally, you’ll need to notify all the government agencies associated with your loved one’s affairs. Some agencies you may want to contact depending on who your loved one has a relationship with include:

• Medicare: There’s a Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services online form that allows your loved one to designate you as their authorized representative.
• The Social Security Administration (SSA): You will need to follow the SSA’s steps to become a representative payee to manage benefits.
• The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Department (VA): You will need to complete the appropriate VA paperwork to be appointed as fiduciary to manage those payouts. ‍

Streamline the Accounts

One approach that can aid your monitoring efforts is to streamline accounts. Ideally, there should be only one checking and savings account. It would also help to consolidate credit cards. You can transfer balances to one or two cards with the best interest rates. Be sure to check on any recurring payments from the accounts before you close them.

If there are any monthly bills, they should be paid automatically, and the electronic statements should come directly to you. You should also sign up to receive pension or insurance company account statements.

Once you have access to those statements, take the time to go through them to look for subscriptions or memberships that aren’t necessary. You also want to ensure you take possession of your loved one’s essential IDs, such as Social Security and Medicare cards. If they don’t need actual credit cards, you can also hold onto those.

Additional Monitoring of Nursing Home Resident’s Finances

The Social Security Administration allows your loved one to set up a “My Social Security” account. That will be a very effective way to monitor those specific benefits.

You should also set up alerts for any bank or credit card accounts. Most of those institutions will send texts and emails to inform you about any activity on those accounts. If there is a suspicious transaction, you’ll be able to track it down.

It will also help to freeze the reports that come from the three major credit bureaus: TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax. By taking this step, you can prevent any new credit card account from being opened in your loved one’s name.

Finally, if your loved one has access to a cell phone, you should contact the wireless provider to set up a block for spam calls. If they use a landline, dialing *77 will activate the Anonymous Call Rejection.

You will feel more secure once you activate these monitoring tips.