Objectives: Although the National Institute of Medicine Social Security committee recommended that a person's financial capacity should be defined and assessed as real-world performance, there has been scant progress on creating methods to translate this idea into reliable methods. The current clinical comment focuses on analyzing actual financial management and decision-making in an evaluation to determine whether the older person needed a conservator.
Methods: A case study is used to illustrate how to take a feasible approach to analyzing financial management and decisions and applying those to financial capacity assessment.
Results: By employing a person-centered analysis of checking and credit card statements and using a semi-structured interview, the clinician was able to assess the financial management and decision-making skills of an older adult.
Conclusions: Clinical gerontologists have an ethical prerogative to enhance autonomy where possible. Analyzing a person's actual financial management records as opposed to hypothetical and perhaps unfamiliar financial tasks may represent a step forward in person-centered assessment of financial management and capacity.
Clinical implications: Clinical gerontologists are often asked to provide financial capacity assessments. Using a person-centered approach to assessing financial management and financial decision-making offers a new and reliable method of assessing financial capacity.
Keywords: Financial capacity; aging; capacity; competency; financial decision-making; financial management.