Business Innovators Radio - Episode #73 – Cognitive Decline & Finances – The 15 Minute Financial Feast Podcast – With Mark Triplett & Troy Westendorf

Episode Date: November 29, 2024

We believe that every dollar has a purpose and a timeline. When and how your retirement assets will be used should be understood before making important financial decisions.The Triplett-Westendorf Purpose and Timeline 5 Step Planning Process (PT5) begins with Discovery.Understanding where you are now, and then defining where you want to go (Your Purpose) and when you want to get there (Your Timeline), programs your financial GPS. Our Purpose and Timeline 5-step process (PT5) programs your financial GPS.Learn more: http://triplett-westendorf.com/ | https://mypt5.com/The 15 Minute Financial Feast Podcasthttps://businessinnovatorsradio.com/the-15-minute-financial-feast-podcast/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/episode-73-cognitive-decline-finances-the-15-minute-financial-feast-podcast-with-mark-triplett-troy-westendorf

Welcome to the 15-minute financial feast podcast, bringing you 15-minute segments to help you retire with purpose on time. We're serving up food for thought and bread for the head. Are you hungry to learn? Here are your hosts, Mark Triplett and Troy Westendorf. Welcome to another episode of the 15-minute financial feast. Today, you are listening to the audio from a live television interview where one of our favorite local news station anchors asked us questions about a financial feast. topic on the minds of many hardworking folks in our community who are trying to make good decisions and get ahead.

With November being National Alzheimer's Disease Awareness Month, the overwhelming majority of caregivers reported elderly Americans with cognitive decline mismanage their finances. Mark Triplett from Triplett-Westendor Financial Group joins us with more on the problem as well as signs that your loved one might need help with their money. Mark, thank you so much for being with us today. Thank you for having me. All right, well, let's just jump right into it. I mean, how much is cognitive decline related to financial mismanagement?

Well, as we age and we all, we're going to experience this a little bit differently, but as we age, our ability to process information and make heads or tails of it could become impaired. Now, I just visited my great aunt, actually. She's over 100 years old, and she's still sharp as attack, but some folks who are even younger than her might find it more difficult to process that information and dementia can be an extremely expensive situation for a loved one. Not only do you have the cost of care itself, which could memory care, proper memory care could cost over a half a million dollars throughout that person's lifetime.

We could also run into situations where they make financial missteps and end up putting them in a situation where they might lose money that they need to maintain their lifestyle. Can you talk a little bit more about those financial consequences that could come as a result from memory loss and maybe specific scenarios that you have seen. Sure. Well, some folks might be encouraged to give money away or they lose money to scams. That's very difficult to get back. And seniors who are scammed, they can reach out to the authorities, but oftentimes they've

given that money away mistakenly and in doing so, they can't get it back. That cognitive decline, too, can also lead us to situations where maybe they start making missteps with forgetting to pay bills or making irrational financial decisions like actually refinancing a loan at a higher rate. You know, we always want to refinance a loan or lower rate, but they do things like that, and it can cost them in the long run. And what are some of those steps that you should take if we do suspect cognitive decline and one of our loved ones making financial mistakes?

Well, I would say as a preparation beforehand, make sure that there's a proper estate, documents in place. Some folks think that estate planning is just for the wealthy, but it really comes in handy to have a financial power of attorney. And that way, if you start to see those signs that maybe a loved one is starting to have cognitive decline, that's a good time to step in and use that. If you don't have that in place, now we have to rely on a doctor to diagnose them, and then we have to go through the steps of getting that diagnosis and getting financial power to make decisions for them. It can be messy and uncomfortable. It's better to have all of that up front so you can step in when you need to. And how common is something like this? How often do you

see this? Well, it's interesting. Eight out of ten caregivers say that they've seen elderly folks that they're caring for make missteps. But that in itself is telling. When you have somebody who needs care assistance with activities of daily living, they've had cognitive or physical decline, they're already in a state, regardless of how old they are, where they're vulnerable. And so it's pretty obvious that you might see more of that activity happen with folks who are already in a situation where they require caregivers. Unfortunately, it happens, I see it in our practice. We use something in our practice called a trusted contact form, where we collect information on folks that they feel comfortable with

us sharing information in case we see something that leads us to believe that maybe they're having a cognitive decline. All right, Mark, any final pieces of advice or specific things that people should be watching out for before I let you go? Yeah, maintain contact. Stay aware of what's going on with your aging family members. You're more likely to notice something right away, and then you could step in and assist. Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much for joining us on this Monday. Really great advice. Really appreciate it. Thanks for having me. You've been listening to the 15-minute financial feast podcast. Remember, every dollar has a purpose and every dollar has a timeline.

If you have questions about today's topic, schedule a call with a team member. Visit www.w.com. Until next time, be sure you're taking steps to retire with purpose on time. Mark Triplett is an investment advisor representative of and advisory services offered through Royal Fund Management LLC. an SEC registered investment advisor. Nothing contained in this program should be considered an offer to buy or sell securities. Different investments have different risks associated with them, and not all investments are appropriate for all investors.