My dad is 90, and has experienced at least two TIA's that we are aware of,
there may have been more.  We have received a diagnosis of  "mild vascular
dementia."  He lives in a large retirement complex in the Midwest, currently
in "supported independent" status.  He attends a clinic daily for treatment
of a pesky leg ulcer - but with the exception of getting it wrapped daily,
follows absolutely none of the other advice for improving the odds of
healing and preventing recurrence.

He probably has a pretty decent financial situation - however virtually ALL
of the investments he and my mother made are in assets which cannot be sold
very easily.  Whether the cash flow is sufficient at this point is still an
unanswered question.  He has begun to allow my sister to keep a calendar of
payments due, visit him weekly to go over everything, receive the checks
after he writes them, and trusts her to mail them.  The incoming mail is a
bigger problem - my sister sees very little of what arrives unless he
remembers to set it aside for her.  As she is able, she is changing billing
addresses for regular payments, and then she takes that mail to him after
getting copies for herself.  Prior to this arrangment she found evidence of
cancelled insurance policies, credit cards with 28% default interest rates
in effect, unpaid pharmacists, etc, etc,  Attempts to discuss these problems
only lead to musings about the "good old days" when insurance companies
never cancelled for lack of payment when they knew that reliable people had
taken out the policy (yeah, right!); the wrack and ruin of society after
credit card companies began to use computers for billing purposes; and so
on.

His two room apartment is a very strange place.  The bedroom and small
adjoining bath (which visitors do NOT see as they enter) is immaculate - all
items neatly arranged and everything very clean.  The living area is stuffed
to the walls with cardboard boxes, filled to overflowing with paper, photos,
newsletters, greeting cards, books, you name it.  There are three smallish
tables, a desk, and a card table which are filled with papers, magazines,
etc - all flat surfaces filled with papers which drift to the floor as
people walk by.  All chairs have similar items on them, with one exception
which is where he sits.  A path leads through the junk to his chair -
another path from his chair through the small kitchen area and out down the
hall to the bedroom.  He becomes quite agitated and upset at any attempt to
move stuff to a closet - but that's a futile attempt - all the closets are
packed with similar caches of junk.

We have discovered that he has come to an impasse in preparing his tax
filings, and at least at this point is refusing any assistance.  He
continues to claim that it would take too long to explain everything to
someone else.  HOWEVER - he made significant errors for 2002 (some items
held in trust should have been reported differently after my mother's death)
has not filed ANYTHING for 2003, and is still "working on" 2004.

Fortunately for him - none of his 5 children are of a mind to inherit
anything.  We are all well established in our own lives and only want what
is best for him.  But we are quite fearful that the value of his property
will be frittered away through poor decisions - or more accurately through
confused inattention.  And that when he does need to tap into the value to
provide for his own needs that he will not be able to, or will find the
value insufficent.

Thanks for reading this - I basically needed to tell some non family member
about all of this.  It weighs on my mind constantly.  And in addition - the
fearful strain on my one sister who is close enough to help him one on one
concerns me.  What on earth will we do if something grim happens to her?