No One Trains You for This: Taking Over Care for a Loved One

Nobody wakes up in the morning and is like, "I'm going to take care of my family member and manage all their finances and manage all their medical decisions." And, you know, there's no training for that really that lay people do. It's usually something that you're kind of told, like, "Hey, you were designated as their power of attorney." And you go, "Okay."

And I think a lot of people feel like, okay, it's my family member, I know what they want, but they get in a little too deep and then they accidentally make mistakes, not on purpose. I would say most of the people we talk to that have kind of gone through the process and then ask for our help, they're not malicious. It's totally, "Oh my gosh, I thought I was doing the right thing. It's a whoopsie. How do I fix it?"

And so we like to tell people, you know, if you don't know how to do something, reach out to an attorney, ask them questions, you know, see if it makes sense to engage them to assist you. Like Elizabeth said, there's many fiduciaries. So say a family member is comfortable making medical decisions, but the bills and the finances is just out of their realm. We can bring somebody in to assist with that, so you can get the help that you need for the areas that you need.