I want to do this without increasing my financial risk. My father recently suffered a health problem that resulted in some severe mental health problems. He is the only person with access to his small savings and checking account. During the worst part of his illness, he believed he was rich and nearly drained his bank account. He is getting better but this incident also revealed he likely has some underlying mild dementia. Do we need to pursue guardianship or is there an alternate approach we can take to manage his finances and prevent him from completely depleting his funds if he suffers another episode?
If a person is competent, they can appoint a Durable Power of Attorney, but even with that, he could resist allowing you to take over the finances, if he has dementia. Sometimes that can be very challenging, even with the signed DPOA in hand. Of course, you can also go the Guardianship route, but if he is currently competent, that wouldn't work.
Will he voluntarily allow you to take over his finances with a POA just to be on the safe side and then you provide him a set amount to spend how he pleases each month? Unless you take on debts personally, I'm not aware of how you would be financially liable personally for his debts.