***Oh no! Mom’s paying bills twice!

What do I do? 

• Don’t panic. Calm your parent down and sit down calmly.
• If checks are bouncing, you’ll need to get that situation resolved quickly, but, if not, sit down and talk.
• Aging parents with dementia know that they are adults, even though they can’t remember things and sometimes make childlike mistakes. Talk to them like they are adults and with patience.
• Ask if they know how the mistake happened, this will help you to make a plan so that it doesn’t happen again.
• Set up billing companies with online accounts.
• Set them up for paperless billing and create a separate email address just for bills that only you have login access to. Ex: smith-bills@gmail.com
• Set them up for automatic withdrawals on the bill due date.
• Make yourself a calendar reminder to check that email as often as needed.