Michael William Vogel

Several years ago, my parents asked me to manage their finances in the event they could not manage themselves. It seemed like an easy enough request. I felt confident that I could pay their bills on time and keep the check book balanced. Besides, my mother was indestructible and would never, ever ...need my help with this. But in 2001, my dad’s health failed and my mom was diagnosed with dementia. It was then that I realized that I had agreed to something that I was never prepared to handle. I met Mike Vogel at the very beginning of this very difficult time in my life. Mom and dad had done their powers of attorney for health care documents incompletely so both needed legal guardianship. Dad’s would later be reversed but mom’s continued until her death in 2007. During the span of 7 years, Mike helped me navigate the very confusing legal system. My education as an RN did little to help me understand the complexities of legal guardianship of the estate for mom which included very detailed accounting of her finances every year. He assisted me with the sale of their home, which I had never done before. He advised me in the management of separate financial accounts for each of them and helped me with their taxes. When dad died in 2005, he helped me as executor of dads estate, which again I had to knowledge of how to do and then helped me with settling mom’s estate after her death in 2007. It is impossible in a short paragraph to tell you just how ill equipped I was to manage mom and dad’s affairs. It was far more involved than simply paying the bills on time. I turned the trust that they had in me over to Mike who helped me every step of the way through a very long and emotionally difficult 6 years. He did so with knowledge, expertise and compassion and I could never have done it without him. Linda T.