Cash in the Hands of Aging Relatives

My colleagues at Penn State Law have often provided practical fact patterns useful for discussion in my Elder Law class. A number of years ago, one of my colleagues shared the problem of his mother believing that caregivers were stealing from her.  It was hard to know whether her worries were real or the product of diminishing capacity — or perhaps just a variation on her documented obsession with frugality

Along that same line, a New York Times writer tracks how he and his siblings have tried to keep track of their aging father’s preference for cash.  I’m sure that having cash on hand can be an important component of maintaining personal dignity, even if risky in a larger sense.  For more, read Patrick Egan’s “Tracking a Thief, Once You Know There Is One,” recently published by the New York Times.

Hat Tip to Professor Laurel Terry for the link to this interesting essay.