This is very similar to the situation that I had with my own mother (also in Ohio), although she only made it up to age 96.All of this is to say that my placing a lot of funds into a money market fund guarantees me the ability to pay the bills for my Mom's care. I don't care what the growth is. My time horizon is very short. I would estimate her life expectancy at 2 years, if that.
This sad scenario is illustrative of why people need to get involved in parents' finances sooner than they think necessary. I could not believe what I had to deal with when I finally took a look at their portfolio. It is also illustrative why some people need a financial advisor...even paying 1% or more, they would be better situated than they are now.
I’m an only living child. When I finally got her POA I found that she had over a million in 0.02% CDs (not a typo) at the bank where her friends from church worked. The bank did have the policy of letting me close out these CDs without penalty because they were to be used for nursing home care. At the time money market funds were yielding about 5% so I put all of these funds there. I used the POA to sell her house soon after she was institutionalized. Even though she had lived there for over 30 years there was not enough gain for it to be taxable.
Be aware that you do not need a diagnosis of dementia for all of her assisted living expenses to be tax deductible; needing assistance with two activities of daily living is sufficient.
Statistics: Posted by KlingKlang — Sat Jan 24, 2026 11:27 am — Replies 31 — Views 1381