By the time Cameron Huddleston’s mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she had already donated a lot of money to different charities.
“Donating too much was an issue with my mom,” she said. “Her giving was definitely out of control.”
The telltale signs were easy to spot: Thank-you gifts from charities – calendars, return address labels, blankets, notepads and pens – were scattered throughout the house, and the mailbox was full of solicitation letters. While some reputable organizations solicit once or twice a year, “those not so on the up and up” will reach out every single month and certainly take advantage, explained Huddleston, who serves as director of education and content for Carefull Finance and is the author of “Mom and Dad, We Need to Talk: How to Have Essential Conversations with Your Parents about Their Finances.” She thwarted their efforts by sorting her mom’s mail and intercepting those solicitations before she had a chance to see them.
Immediately after her mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis – she lived with it for about 13 years – Huddleston set up online banking to monitor her accounts for suspicious activity. She thought she intervened early, but she was wrong. After her mom passed away, she discovered a pattern of excessive giving and difficulties managing finances two years prior to diagnosis.
It turns out she was not alone in her predicament.
A recent study published in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease…
