If you’re a family caregiver, chances are you’re not only providing physical, hands-on help but likely also helping with paying bills and money management. Whether you’re doing it in collaboration with your loved one or more officially through a power of attorney or even guardianship appointment, you need to know your responsibilities and the potential obstacles and errors that could get in the way. Fortunately, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has just published a series of easy-to-read downloadable guides to help you with this important responsibility. From outlining your role and responsibilities as a fiduciary to enlightening you about senior scams and exploitations, these guides (in English or Spanish, with special guides for certain states) should give you a good foundation for fulfilling your duties and doing right by your relative.

If you think you don’t need a power of attorney arrangement, and instead, you just added your name to your older relative’s account, making it a joint account, beware- this action may have unintended and burdensome consequences. Take a look at the advice from financial manager Casey Robinson here. But if you went ahead and had a power of attorney arrangement executed, but now the bank won’t accept it, know that this is a frequent problem- one you should prepare for in advance of acting as power of attorney. To find out if you can negotiate a remedy with the bank, take a look here.