Helping your parents choose someone to help with their bill paying
As many of us have aging parents or find ourselves aging, something that is done every day can become very challenging: paying bills. You might find yourself asking the following questions:
- Are bills getting paid? Were they paid on time or were late fees or interest incurred?
- Have there been times when the same bill is paid twice?
- Are there suspicions that a fraudulent bill was paid for work that was never done or a charity that doesn’t exist?
Switching to paying bills online
Paying bills online can be as overwhelming as it involves remembering and tracking login credentials for many sites. Viewing invoices on a computer can also be foreign and uncomfortable. However, maintaining a hand-written ledger and writing checks can grow harder with age too. It can also be difficult for a surviving spouse, who may not be used to paying the bills, to start doing so in a time of grief.
If all of this is feeling too familiar, it may be time to seek out help. That help could be from a family member or from an outside firm with bill-paying experience and services. White Oaks has been providing family office services like bill payment for over 10 years now. Here’s how we can step in and help:
Family Office Clients
For our family office clients, all bills are routed to us, via email, mail or online account access. Before bills are paid, a family member can review and approve, if necessary. Internal reviews and approvals by our team are also done. Once all approvals are received, payments are processed, either electronically or via a check. All bills are saved electronically with notes, approvals, and payment information that can be viewed by the client or family members at any time.
If required or desired by the family, the payments can be synced to an accounting software. The bank account can then be easily reconciled, making it convenient to produce expense reports that may be needed for filing taxes. Statements such as balance sheets and cash flow statements can also be provided as well.
This past year, we have seen families separated from each other, but they were comforted that bill payment with our assistance was still convenient and stress-free. Our goal at White Oaks is to take care of you like family – that means giving you back your quality time, peace of mind and family harmony. If you have any questions about help with bill pay services for your parents or even for yourselves, please contact our team, and we would be happy to help.
