| Daily money managers for the average
Jill or Joe |
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Where money and the elderly are concerned, the conundrum
is this: How can the elderly avoid being victimized by con artists
posing as daily money managers?
"There clearly is a need and there clearly is
a risk," says Hurme. "Any time you're putting your money
in the hands of someone else, you need to be very certain of the
ethics and qualifications of that individual. You want to be sure
that they know their fiduciary responsibility."
The best way is to seek referrals from relatives and
friends, as well as doctors, lawyers, accountants and social workers
in your community. A state-by-state listing of AADMM members, as
well as helpful guidelines and questions to ask a prospective daily
money manager, are available on the association's Web
site. If a geriatric care manager more closely fits your needs,
you can get helpful information from the National
Association of Geriatric Care Managers.
Too busy for bills
Pat Manalio's clientele at Strategic Financial Services of Lakeridge,
Va., is predominantly busy professionals and small business owners
for whom her time, at $60 an hour, is money well-spent.
Manalio says her time commitment to her busy professionals
far exceeds the time she spends with her few elderly clients.
"With the elderly, I might spend one hour a month;
with the professionals, I have one client that I spend about five
hours a week doing both their business and personal money management,"
she says. "The seniors sometimes just want you to write the
check and reconcile the checking account. With the busy professionals,
you're getting stuff together for their tax accountant; you're giving
them reports. They want to know how they're spending their money
in many cases."
Busy professionals, says Manalio, have come in all
shapes and sizes during her nine years in the business. At one point
during the dot-com era, she even assisted two 16-year-old whiz kids.
"The parents called me because the kids wouldn't
let them into their finances," she chuckles. "The kids
were doing pretty well, but they were too young to sign checks."
Surprisingly, she prefers clients who take an active
interest in their money flow to those who would rather not bother.
"I find that the ones that just want it off their
plate are very difficult to work with because they're usually in
over their heads financially and what they really want is not to
know that they have these bills," she says. "They want
you to fix the problem and make it go away. But I can't make more
money for them or spend less for them. I'm not a magician who can
wave my arms up in the air and make more money appear. I would not
be working if I could."
Jay MacDonald is a contributing
editor based in Mississippi.
PLUS: Finding
a daily money manager
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