Getting started: Taking care of the finances

Your mission: Find and organize

Gather it all together. That means account numbers, passwords, statements from the past year for both checking and savings accounts, and tax paperwork.

Past statements help to illustrate income and expenses to make sure everything is accounted for. Plus it lets you flag any suspicious activity.

“Just find all the paperwork you can possibly get your hands on,” says Karla Businaro, who managed her mother's finances for years. “In our case, it was all over the house.”

Don't forget digital. These days, much of your loved one's accounts are likely to be digital. Start making a list of all the online accounts. Include passwords, user names and any other pertinent info. If there are duplicates, eliminate and merge where you can.

“When I went through it, I thought of passwords I wouldn’t have otherwise thought of,” says Lynn Boger, who cares for her 91-year-old mother. “Even the password for your iPad and phone and laptop—there are all these accounts to track.”

Find a system that works for you. A notebook is all you need to start compiling it all. But a digital asset manager can make things simpler. There are various platforms and software available that can help you to track and organize a loved one's digital account information (or even your own).

And if you’re handling financials, be sure you have the appropriate authority to get all of those statements.