Living with dementia

We can help you do some simple things now to make it easier to manage your money and reduce the risk that you will miss payments in the future, including:

• If you have more than one transaction account, consolidate these into one.
• Reduce the number of credit cards you have. We can help you put plans in place to reduce debts or consolidate any debts you may have into a more simple, manageable payment.
• If you have superannuation in more than one account, consolidate these into a single account*.

* Before requesting a rollover of your superannuation benefits, you should consider where your future employer contributions will be paid. If you wish to change the fund into which your employer contributions are being paid, you will need to contact your employer. You should also check with your other fund(s) to determine whether there are any exit or withdrawal fees for moving your benefit, or other loss of benefits (e.g. insurance cover). You may not receive the same type or level of benefits after the rollover and may lose any insurance entitlements you have in other fund(s).

Other things you can do:

• Consider cancelling store cards or reducing the number you hold.
• Put a list on your fridge of what your regular bills are and when they come in (e.g. phone monthly, electricity quarterly, rates annually). Put a 'tick' beside each bill once you've paid it.
• Put unpaid bills on the fridge and take them down when they have been paid.

Consider planning ahead by setting up a power of attorney.

A power of attorney is a legal document that gives another person the right to make financial and/or legal decisions on your behalf. You may have heard of two types of power of attorney – ‘general’ and ‘enduring’. While a general power of attorney ends when you lose mental capacity, an enduring power of attorney remains valid over time – even when you are no longer able to make your own decisions. You can set it up now to start at a later time specified by you, or when you no longer have the capacity to manage your financial and legal affairs. Equally you can set it up to start as soon as the attorney has accepted his/her appointment. When granting a power of attorney you can put limits on what your attorney can do.

If you do not have these plans in place then a court, tribunal, Public Advocates Office or health assessment board may need to appoint someone to take care of this for you.

It is important to choose someone you trust as your attorney. You need to feel confident they will act in your best interests.

This person could be your spouse, child, another relative or friend. Alternatively, it could be an independent person, such as the Public Trustee, or your solicitor. Whoever you appoint needs to understand their responsibilities and legal obligations as an attorney.

Some people prefer to appoint two people jointly to be their enduring powers of attorney. If you do this, you need to be confident that they will generally agree on decisions and what is in your best interests. They should live in close proximity to each other to perform their duties as your joint attorneys.

No matter who you appoint, you should discuss your decision with your family so everyone knows and understands your wishes and use a lawyer to help you put the right sort of power of attorney in place.

We can work with you or the person you have granted a power of attorney to help you protect your money in line with your best interests. This includes setting up automated options to protect your money in the future such as withdrawal limits and direct debits on certain accounts. 

Once you become dependent on others for your day to day care or social contact, you do become more vulnerable to financial abuse. See Protecting you from financial abuse for more information on how to protect yourself from potential financial abuse and how to report suspected financial abuse.

• National Dementia Helpline - 1800 100 500
• ASIC Guidance on ‘Memory loss, dementia and your money’.