Setting up a plan for “What if I can no longer pay my bills?” is never easy. You need someone to act, and that person needs to be trustworthy because you won’t be able to monitor their actions.
Requiring your trustee to provide monthly accounting is one way I protect my vulnerable clients. I also put in provisions that make it easy to remove a trustee who is acting badly. There is no guarantee that your trustee will be trustworthy. The hardest person to help is someone who has no one they can trust. I wish that private professional fiduciaries could be trusted, but there have been a few bad apples who stole from clients. Not all children are trustworthy either. It is hard to know who to trust. In planning for the day you need help paying your bills, find someone who has spent their life taking care of others—secretaries, bookkeepers, administrative assistants, etc. Look for those who had access to money and who didn’t misuse it.
I wish I could help those who have no one. All I can do is tell them to investigate using a private fiduciary whom they interview and research. It is important that you find someone. The public guardian can only step in when there is no one and you can no longer care for yourself.
If you want to figure this out, give me a call. I can guide you as you find someone.
