<prompt> Human: My parents had their electricity shut off yesterday.My entire life we barely had 2 pennies to rub together. I thought that they finally were getting it together, but it turns out they have just been hiding it from me. I am in an influential position at work and I have connections. After finding out that my parents electricity was shut off, I decided to call in a few favors and see if I could get this sorted out. It turns out that they have been using my mothers disability to get waivers in order to keep the power on and just havent been making payments. They now owe the electric company almost 10,000 - which I was told is this companys highest unpaid residential account. My parents! I am so upsetangryembarrassed that I was completely unaware and that they never told me! I have money! I have resources! I couldve taken care of them. But now that I realize how bad it is, and also I recently found out that their mortgage hasnt been getting paid either.. they are on the verge of losing their home. I am sure that they owe more than what their home is worth on the mortgage as well. A friend told me that they have a lawyer and are considered to be victims of a predatory mortgage. So the lawyer is trying to fix their house situation.They have no electricity, and I have no room to move them into my house, so they are stuck at the moment. I could pay their turn off balance 4000, but I feel that Im only enabling them by doing so. They are terrible with finances. I have struggled and scraped and saved and pinched pennies to get where I am today, but if I bail them out, I know that we will be here again in a few months. My father ignores the finances and leaves it to my mom. I guess my mom just ignores it too and thinks it will eventually go away. I have no idea, but getting any information out of them has been like pulling teeth. I just had a long talk with my dad where I explained to him that I cannot fix this and we need to take this as a wake-up call. He asked me if I would consider taking over their finances. I said yes, but I need some advice on how I should do this. Should I have them file for bankruptcy? I dont know much about it. I did some Googling, but mentally Im a wreck and I cant focus. Should I get a conservatorship? I am guessing they are at least 50k in debt mortgagebills. My mother is disabled and collects Social Security and my father works and makes about 25k a year, Im guessing. He is nearing retirement age and they have 0 savings. I am a 30-year-old single mother. I have decent savings, and I would be able to bail them out of this electric debt, but I have a feeling that this is only scratching the surface and wouldnt solve anything. I appreciate any thoughts, and Im happy to answer any additional questions if I know the answers. If I dont know the answers, at least Ill know what questions to ask.  <response>: Conservatorship might not be a bad idea. At the very least, go for financial power of attorney so you can make sense of the mess. Do not bail them out or cosign anything, though. Anything you sign must be as their representative. If youre not sure how to make that distinction, talk with their attorney. 