<prompt> Human: Original Post:My father passed away this pass week. He had a few insurance policies totaling about 400k, he has a 401k totaling almost 500k, and a pension around 10k. He has a joint mortgage with my mom, about 350k outstanding on the loan. I am not sure of his Social security benefits yet. My mom is 61 yrs old and she put me in charge of dealing with this process. I have never worked with this kind of money before and I just want to make sure she can live out the rest of her days comfortably, with a regular income. My mother had a stroke a year ago so she doesnt go out much and she cant drive. I was told there average weekly spending was about 400wk for the 2 of them. I plan on setting up auto payments for all the credit cards and personal loans so that they just get cleared over time. I want the mortgage to just continue paying like normal, 2300mo. Utilities are 250 electric gas and 300 water every 3 months. Ill need to have access to a larger portion in case of an health emergency so I cant lock it all away in a high yield account.They currently have 2 checking accounts and 1 savings account. All are standard brick and mortar banks, no high interest or anything special. ---Updates 11218:First let me thank everyone for providing resources to help me research. We are using an estate lawyer to help get things in order, friend of my aunt on my dads side. I wanted to provide some updates now that I have a better understanding of the finances and my head isnt as scrambled.1. The mortgage is a 30yr FHA, outstanding balance of 311k, originally 322k. It was from a refinance in March 2017. 2266mo.1. Most of the credit was not part of a joint accounts. They each had their own cards.1. She has 1 card that she used, totaling roughly 4k worth of debt. 1. House, life insurance, pension, and 401k are all designated with beneficiaries or joint accounts. Policies totaling close to a million. 1. As far as I know, the estate will only have the value of 3 junk cars that he never got around to selling.1. We have a meeting with Social Security on Nov 20. Going to try to apply for survivors benefits, Medicare, and disability. She is 62, has a hard time walking, and is blind in 1 eye, and a stroke in 2017. I know my dad maxed out his contributions for at least the last 5 years. No idea what to expect from this.1. Existing Health Insurance will cover until Nov 25, 2018. I guess I have to get a policy through healthcare.gov, since it takes 6 months to be approved for disability and medicare. This process is confusing to me. I know i have until Dec 15 to get this setup.1. Once we get pass the medicare health insurance part, we are going to meet with a Financial Planner, still searching for one.1. Im going to help her cut cost where they can be cut easily, get the electric provider home evaluation, close rooms not in use, slim down the cell phone extras and the everything cable package.---Thank You all:This has been a hard time and a scary process. All the information that was provided was a huge help in getting us moving in the right direction. One thing ive learned is to get things in order and a little prep work can really save your loved ones time and money.  <response>: Honestly the best thing you can probably do is find a Hourly fee based, fiduciary financial planner and then sit down with them to go thru everything top to bottom. You can get a head start by gathering up as much as you can about all of her different assets, income payments SS and pension and ???, and then coming up with an expenses budget. Make sure you are finding someone who is a fiduciary and is paid by the hour. This REQUIRES them to put your interests ahead of theirs. Many maybe most financial advisers, make their money by earning commissions on products they sell you. Obviously creating a conflict of interest. A by the hour adviser may seem like they cost more, because youll be paying them up front, but it will give you a better long term plan and save you money that way. Be prepared to spend 500 to 2000 dollars for something like that depending on how complex a plan you need. 