Care for Parent ③ ~Sharing Asset Status~

 This article is also about what your family should do before you start care for your parent, rather than about caregiving itself.

 It is important for your family to share your family’s assets status and management before your parents are getting forgetful.

 There are two examples of problems I’ve run into.

 The first one is about bank deposits.

 My father, like many people, had several bank accounts, but he mainly used two of them and hadn’t used the others for a long time. I think he had forgotten about them.

 I found out one of these accounts when my father was hospitalized with terminal cancer as we received a letter from the bank informing us of the bank’s remaining balance. I wanted to use the money for my father’s hospitalization expenses and living expenses, so I asked my father where the cash card for that account was, but he had almost no memory about it. So I asked the bank how to withdraw the balance, and although I don’t remember the details, I was told that I would have to go to the government office to arrange for the necessary documents and send them to the bank. As the balance was small, and considering the time and effort involved, I gave up on withdrawing the deposits for the time being. Even if it was a small amount, it doesn’t feel good to leave it in the account. Before parents are getting forgetful, I think it is important to clarify the asset status and make it easier to withdraw such deposits.

 The second is about a credit card. 

 Some credit cards have annual fees and some don’t, but a card with no annual fee may sometimes be changed to one that charges an annual fee or something similar. So it’s important to reduce the number of cards your parents have before they are getting forgetful.

 Nearly 10 years after my father passed away, I received a renewed credit card in his name. The card was due for renewal every 5 years, so I’m still wondering why it was sent at that time, but anyway, I checked the contract details on the spot. It said that there was an annual fee, so I looked into the contract of the card and found out that it started charging an annual fee a few years ago. From my perspective, it was extremely unreasonable and unpleasant to have a card that had never been used for nearly 10 years renewed and sent to me by forwarding mail, and even to have the annual fee charged to the card. I couldn’t just leave it so I immediately started the cancellation procedure, but the unpleasant events continued after that. When I contacted the call center, I was only answered by an automated voice. I was only forced to listen to their several announcement and was never able to contact an operator. After trying several methods, I was finally able to contact an operator, but I was told that I was connected to a department that was not in charge, so I had to contact another department. After going through all of these procedures, I was finally able to talk to an operator in charge a few days later. In the end, I was able to cancel the card without being charged the annual fee, but you can imagine how I felt during that time.

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 In my family’s case, regarding real estate and investment assets, we shared the status of these assets after my mother underwent major surgery for angina in her 70s, so after my parents’ deaths, I was able to smoothly proceed with the normal inheritance procedures, although they were quite tedious.

 My opinions in this article is only from my perspective as a child, and may differ from those of parents. Nevertheless, I think it is important for families to share the status of their assets and also their wills regarding inheritance at a time when they can communicate well.

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 This is the end of the stories related to caregiving for now. I’m planning to post some articles about fake news next.

Continued in Fake News ① ~Why is fake news harmful?~

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Wish you beautiful days!

from Japan

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