Elder Law Checklist: what kinds of questions should we ask aging mom? (Fl)
Hi Attorneys of Reddit. My brother and I have to have “the talk” with our aging mom. She is early 70’s, still working, mostly healthy, but we recognize that, should something happen tomorrow, he and I would be her advocates.
Mom is not the most responsible adult. She has zero assets. None. No retirement, no real estate, no life insurance. She likely has some debts; perhaps a credit card or two. Nothing too significant. I don’t believe she has insurance. Once brother and I learn more about her current situation, we’re going to hire an attorney to draft a living will/advanced directive/etc, but we need to go on a fact-finding mission first.
My question for the hive mind is: what kinds of questions should we ask her? What kind of information do we need to collect before we move to Phase II of Operation Parenting Our Parent? We predict that she will be resistant to this conversation and may not even let us move to the “hiring an attorney” portion of events. If that’s the case, is there anything we could/should do to protect her from her predatory boyfriend? Or protect ourselves from assuming her debts upon her passing? Any advice for how to navigate this is appreciated. [Edited to add: the bot didn’t recognize my geographic tag in the title, so to be clear, this is Florida, United States.]