<prompt> Human: tl;dnr - An essential part of retirement planning is planning how to preserve your money for after you lose the cognitive ability to manage it.This is a horrific article about the cottage industry that has sprung up to rob elderly people as they start to decline.I have a personal experience along these lines. My great uncle and aunt had no children, and lived at some distance from the rest of the family. He had been an army colonel, with a post-army career, and frugal with money. A couple from their church--seemingly very nice--took my uncle and aunt under their wing, helped run them to errands and appointments, keep up with their house, etc.One day, my father got a call from an attorney doing some work for them, and it set off alarm bells. He flew in from out of state to find my uncle and aunt still cheerfully enjoying their lives, but nearly broke. Six hundred thousand dollars in retirement savings, down to about 80K. A hundred thousand dollars in gold and silver coins, missing. The house, heavily mortgaged. Oh, and the will, now made out to the names of the nice younger couple from church.Tracing the checks and bank info, it turns out that the younger couple had been receiving a salary of roughly 100,000 a year in the mid-1980s to help take care of my uncle and aunt, plus lots of miscellaneous expenses, to the point where my uncle and aunt had taken out mortgages on their long paid off home. The young couple angrily denied any wrong doing, claimed to know nothing about the missing coins, etc., etc.The police were brought in, as well as an attorney. In the end, the nice young couple from church got off without any sanctions, repaid about 25,000, and had their names off the will. The end damage was my uncle and aunts life savings, and they lived in reduced circumstances for the rest of their lives about 2 years for my uncle, and 8 for my aunt. There was no inheritance to leave to either charity, or to pay for the education of younger relatives, which had been their intention.  <response>: One of my family members hired someone to be live in help. That person moved their entire family into the house and tore up the backyard to make a garden. When that family member passed away they were pissed that they were being kicked out of the house. They had assumed they would be allowed to keep the house. 