Ep 502: Financial Caregiving 101: What You Need To Know Before You or Your Parent Gets Sick

When you're suddenly put in charge of an aging parent’s finances, the emotional toll is heavy, and the financial fallout can be even heavier. In this episode, Jean Chatzky is joined by certified financial planner and MarketWatch columnist Beth Pinsker, author of My Mother’s Money: A Guide to Financial Caregiving . Together, they unpack Beth’s personal journey of managing her mother’s finances through illness, surgery, and estate settlement. Even with decades of experience writing about money, Beth found herself caught off-guard by just how complicated — and expensive — caregiving can be without the right documents and conversations in place. What You’ll Learn: The most overlooked (and affordable) legal documents everyone needs The difference between joint accounts, POA, and transfer-on-death How to prep for financial caregiving before a medical emergency The unexpected costs of not planning ahead — and how to avoid them How to be “the person who gets called” in a crisis — and what to ask in advance 💡 P.S. Need help getting your own financial life in order before you take on someone else’s? Check out our FinanceFixx program , our signature coaching experience that helps you get organized, take control of your spending, and build a plan that actually works. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices