Many older people have a long-term distrust of banks and often hide their valuables in the strangest places.  If your parents are European immigrants, they have an even greater tendency to do this, and if either parent has dementia or Alzheimer’s, they likely have hidden things and forgot about them.

Many seniors hide money and valuables that often go unnoticed in the liquidation of their estates.  Here are the most common places where these valuables may exist:

• Clothing and shoes — especially breast pockets in a man’s suit coat, under an insert in the sole of a shoe, wrapped in socks or underwear, bra cups.
• Drapery hems — a favorite hiding place for small jewelry or coins
• Canister sets — rare coins or jewelry in the flour or sugar canister and sometimes in cookie tins
• Books — paper money slid between the pages of a book
• Ice cube trays — a favorite place for small jewelry or gemstones
• Toilet tank — another place for jewelry
• Duct tape — money or jewelry wrapped tightly in a wadded ball
• Picture frames — between the picture and the mat or backing material
• Attic rafters — favorite place for coins, jewelry, and antiques

You’ll need to use some detective skills to be sure that when you liquidate their home and estate, you don’t leave anything valuable behind.

© 2010 Julie Hall