Nobody wants to admit to cognitive decline but way too many of us are going to have to deal with it at some point. The question is how? Those of you with kids can just count on one of them taking over the finances at that point (hopefully before the scammers get to it). As we are childless that won't work. We could identify a niece/nephew but I want here to explore whether there are other solutions. I don't need a financial advisor as "sell 1% of my brk each quarter" doesn't require much effort. But while most of our bills are on auto-pay there are still some financial tasks that need a personal touch (e.g. property tax, filing personal taxes, etc). Is there a service that will take on that sort of task? How much trust do we put into that person or service? There used to be a time when the family banker could be tasked with these things but I'm not sure that exists any more. What is an appropriate fee for such a service? Do they have complete POA over our finances? If not, how much do they have? One could imagine setting up a separate bank account and funding it at the beginning of each year with sufficient funds for all those expenses, but I need to be sufficiently compos mentis to actually do that each year. Finding someone you trust sufficiently is the solution but is there a job classification for "trusted personal assistant who won't steal you blind"? Do I set this up early enough that I can keep on eye on things and depend on it still going well 20 years from now when I really have lost it? My spouse is reasonably numerate which means that we both have to descend into innumeracy before it becomes a problem, but it may still happen. Anyone have a solution they like?

Rgds,
HH/Sean