(The pdf for the issue in which this article appears is available for download: Vol. 37, Issue 4.)
In 2012 the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) contracted with the Commission to develop a package of easy-to-understand booklets to help financial caregivers. The CFPB released the four guides for “lay fiduciaries” entitled Managing Someone Else’s Money in late 2013.
Now, state-specific versions of these resources are available for Virginia, Florida, and Oregon. Still to come are guides for Arizona, Georgia, and Illinois. These states were selected because they have a high number or percentage of older residents, and also because they are located in different parts of the US. The state guides will address requirements imposed by each state’s laws as well as resources available to people in these states.
The guides cover four types of fiduciaries: agents under power of attorney, guardians of property (sometimes known as conservators), trustees under revocable living trusts, and government benefits fiduciaries (Social Security representative payees and VA fiduciaries).
The primary audience for the guides is family members and friends with legal authority to handle an incapacitated person’s funds. Millions of people have legal authority to manage money for a family member or a friend, and the number may grow with the aging of the population and the rising number of individuals with disabilities. But the booklets have practical tips for managing someone else’s money that could be useful to informal caregivers as well.
The CFPB has also published replication instructions so that interested professionals and organizations in the remaining states can create their own Managing Someone Else’s Money guides.
Learn more at: http://www.consumerfinance.gov/managing-someone-elses-money/. ■