Delegating Paperwork: Money Managers, Bookkeepers, and Controls

Whoever opens your mail decides, in practice, which parts of your financial life you ever see. After a death the paper multiplies: estate correspondence, two households’ bills, trust statements, renewals. Hiring help is sensible, and for a complex household it is simply good management. The question is not whether to delegate, but how to hand over the processing without handing over control.

This guide sets out what to give a helper and what to keep, how to vet one lawfully, how to design access so no single person can move serious money unobserved, and where to report trouble. By the end you should be able to write a one-page delegation plan, and know what to ask for before anyone receives a password.

Three roles, and the people who should hold none of them

A daily money manager sorts mail, pays routine bills, reconciles accounts, and assembles papers for your tax preparer, often for several households at once. A bookkeeper records and reconciles, often for a family business, a rental, or a second home. A personal assistant manages calendars, correspondence, and vendors, and money drifts into her remit without anyone deciding it should.

The titles say nothing about licensing, and a daily money manager may hold none. Confirm every credential a candidate claims with the body that issued it.

Keep these roles apart from the people who work inside your house. The FDIC and CFPB’s Money Smart for Older Adults materials advise against letting hired caregivers or in-home helpers open your mail, pay your bills, or manage your finances. This is structure, not suspicion: the person who handles your money should be engaged, vetted, and reviewed for that purpose alone.

Delegate the processing, keep the decisions

Helpers prepare and execute; you authorize. Hand over the sorting and scanning of mail, recurring bills you have approved, reconciliations, the pursuit of refunds and insurance claims, the filing system, and a calendar of renewals.

Keep anything that changes the architecture of your finances: opening or closing accounts, every wire, new payees, changes to addresses, titles, or beneficiary designations, gifts, loans, pledges, investment decisions, the choice of advisers, and your signature on a tax return. And make sure at least one copy of every statement reaches you, or your accountant, directly.

Vetting: references, a lawful background check, and proof of coverage

Speak to references by telephone, including a former client, and ask how the candidate handled a discrepancy.

If you buy a background report from a company that compiles them, the FTC’s guidance for employers sets out what the Fair Credit Reporting Act requires. Tell the candidate in writing, in a stand-alone document, that you may use the report in your decision; obtain her written permission; and certify your compliance to the reporting company. If the report leads you not to hire her, first give her a copy and “A Summary of Your Rights Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act.” Afterward, you must tell her that she was turned down because of the report, give the reporting company’s name, address, and telephone number, explain that the company did not make the decision, and tell her of her right to dispute the report and to get an additional free copy from the company within 60 days. Some states and municipalities add their own rules on background reports, so ask your lawyer about local law. Once any retention period has passed, destroy it securely.

Whether the Act strictly covers a contractor is a question for your lawyer; follow the procedure regardless. If you engage a firm, ask in writing how it screened the individual assigned to you.

Ask for a certificate of insurance and any fidelity bond or crime policy, then ask three questions. Who is the insured party? What must be proved to make a claim? Does coverage extend to the person who will handle your account?

Employee or contractor: settle it before the first payment

IRS Publication 926 says a worker is your employee if you control not only what work is done but how. A self-employed practitioner who serves the public with her own tools generally is not, nor is a worker supplied by an agency that controls the work.

Household work means work in or around your home, by housekeepers, drivers, private nurses and the like. For 2026, social security and Medicare taxes apply once you pay a household worker $3,000 or more in cash wages, and federal unemployment tax applies if your cash wages to household employees total $1,000 or more in any calendar quarter of 2025 or 2026. The same publication notes that a private secretary’s services are not household work even when performed in your home, so an assistant who handles your papers may fall under ordinary employer rules instead. Form I-9, state unemployment tax, and workers’ compensation may also be in play. Settle the classification with your CPA before the first payment.

Designing access so that no one person can move serious money

1. A separate bill-pay account with a cap. Fund an account used only for routine bills by a monthly transfer you initiate, holding roughly a month of bills plus a margin. Provided the account has no overdraft line and no link to your other accounts, that balance is roughly the most the arrangement can lose before you notice.
2. View-only access everywhere else. Where a bank or custodian offers read-only access in the helper’s own name, use it. Never share your own password, card, or PIN. Under Regulation E, an electronic transfer by someone to whom you furnished your card or code is not treated as unauthorized unless you have told the institution that transfers by that person are no longer authorized, so the protections for unauthorized transfers may not reach it.
3. Dual approval for large payments. Ask whether your bank supports a second approver above a threshold. Suppose you set it at $5,000: anything larger then waits for you, or your accountant.
4. No blank checks. No pre-signed checks and no signature stamp. The helper prepares; you sign.
5. Independent eyes. The CFPB suggests asking your bank or broker to send copies of your statements to your accountant or a relative, and Money Smart notes that the person receiving them needs no authority to act. Send transaction alerts to a second person too. A trusted contact person on a brokerage account cannot touch the money, but the firm can reach her if it suspects exploitation.
6. No power of attorney by default. A paid helper does not need one to pay bills from an account you fund, and Money Smart advises against naming paid helpers as your agent. The CFPB describes a convenience account, which lets someone write checks without changing ownership; a joint account, by contrast, generally makes her a co-owner who automatically receives the money when you die, though the exact effect depends on the account terms and state law. Who should act if you cannot is a separate decision, considered in Who Would Act If You Could Not.

A monthly review that takes an hour

Delegate the work of paying; never delegate the knowledge of what was paid.

Work from the institution’s statements, not a helper’s summary. Reconcile the bill-pay account against its funding transfers. Read the new payees, confirm that check numbers run in sequence, and require receipts for purchases made on your behalf, as Money Smart recommends. Question round-number transfers, review your free credit reports at annualcreditreport.com, and once a year ask your accountant to test a sample of payments against invoices.

Orderly records make this quick; Build an Executor-Ready Financial File sets out a structure that serves both.

Warning signs that the arrangement has turned

Statements move to paperless delivery or a new address without your decision. Unfamiliar payees appear. Late notices arrive for bills you believed were paid, or checks go missing from the sequence.

Personal signals matter as much. Watch for requests for a loan, an advance, a power of attorney, or a place on an account or in your will; Money Smart is plain that you should never promise money at your death in exchange for help now. A helper who discourages you from speaking with family or advisers, or presents every request as urgent and confidential, is showing the pressure and secrecy described in our guide to scams that target recently widowed women.

Where to report, and in what order

Protect the money first. Call each bank and custodian, freeze or restrict the bill-pay account, revoke the helper’s access, change every credential, and confirm in writing that transfers by that person are no longer authorized. If anyone is in danger or a crime is in progress, call 911.

The CFPB’s directory for elder financial abuse then points to Adult Protective Services, which investigates suspected exploitation of older and vulnerable adults, reached through the Eldercare Locator at 800-677-1116. It also lists local police, your state attorney general, the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center for online crime, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, at 877-876-2455, when the mail was used. Call your lawyer, and notify the bonding company or insurer promptly in writing.

Questions to ask before anyone receives a password

1. Which decisions have I written down as mine alone?
2. Did the candidate consent in writing to the background check, with the FCRA notices given?
3. Have I spoken to a former client?
4. Who is insured under the bond or policy, and does it cover this individual?
5. Has my CPA confirmed whether this person is my employee or a contractor for 2026?
6. Does the helper work only from a capped bill-pay account, with view-only access elsewhere in her own name?
7. Which payments need my approval or a second approver, and above what amount?
8. Who besides me receives duplicate statements and alerts?
9. Have I withheld power of attorney, joint ownership, and wider signing authority?
10. Is the monthly review in my calendar?

This article provides general U.S. educational information and is not legal, tax, employment, banking, or insurance advice. Confirm current rules with the agency and a qualified professional who knows your facts.