Janet Berry-Johnson, CPA, CFEI

Janet Berry-Johnson, CPA, CFEI I'm a CPA and Financial Educator. I help families organize their aging parents' paperwork and finances before a crisis hits.

Credentials matter, but so does empathy.When you let someone into your parent's finances, or your own, you deserve to kn...
09/03/2026

Credentials matter, but so does empathy.

When you let someone into your parent's finances, or your own, you deserve to know they're qualified, ethical, and trustworthy.

I'm a CPA, Daily Money Manager, Certified Financial Education Instructor, Paper Solution Certified Organizer, Trustworthy Certified Expert, and HIPAA-certified.

Those credentials tell you I understand the technical side: the tax rules, the documentation, the compliance. What they can't measure is whether I can listen without judgment, or recognize that behind a stack of unopened mail is usually guilt, grief, or just plain overwhelm.

Organizing your finances, or your parent's takes accuracy and care.

Sorting through someone's financial life, especially at the end of theirs, takes patience most spreadsheets don't account for. I bring the professional expertise to get it right, and the calm, steady approach to get through it without adding to what you're already carrying.

Follow for more on how I work.

Your filing cabinet can't evacuate with you.If a wildfire, hurricane, or flood forces you out of your house, you don't g...
09/01/2026

Your filing cabinet can't evacuate with you.

If a wildfire, hurricane, or flood forces you out of your house, you don't grab that four-drawer cabinet full of paperwork. You grab what you can carry, or nothing at all.

This is why Lisa Woodruff at built the Paper Solution Binders the way she did. They're designed to grab and go so you can pull them off a shelf on your way out the door.

And you don't even need the physical binder in hand to be prepared. Once you have your paperwork organized in the binder system, you can digitize it and store it in the cloud. That way, even if you can't get to the physical copies, you have access to insurance policies, account numbers, etc.

September is National Preparedness Month, so it's a good time to consider, if you had to evacuate right now, do you know where your most important documents are, and could you get to them?

I'll include my affiliate link to the Organize 365 Paper Solution Binder in the comments so you can get started. If you make a purchase using my link, I earn a small commission at no extra cost to you.

I'm a Paper Solution Certified Organizer, so if you need help finding the right solution or implementing it, please reach out!

08/31/2026

Naming adult siblings as co-executors of an estate is a nice thought, but co-executors have to do almost everything together, including signing paperwork, endorsing checks, and filing tax returns. If they live in different states or one of them is just slow to respond, everything stalls. And if they can’t agree? They could wind up in court.

Have your parents talk to their estate planning attorney. Depending on the situation, it might make more sense to have an executor and a successor executor. That doesn’t mean the second sibling can’t help with the to-do list. It just means they don’t need to agree on every decision.

You don't want to take over your parent's finances. You also can't watch things spiral and do nothing.That's a genuine t...
08/28/2026

You don't want to take over your parent's finances. You also can't watch things spiral and do nothing.

That's a genuine tension, and there's no clean way through it if you're the one wearing both hats: the daughter and the accountant.

This is usually where a neutral third party helps more than another family conversation. Someone who can organize and manage the day-to-day finances, keep your parent involved and informed, and take the money part off the table before it turns into a fight about control.

It's not about replacing your parent's independence. It's about removing the tension that shows up whenever family and money mix.

Follow for more on how this works.

Here's a myth-buster for anyone with aging parents: Medicare DOESN'T cover long-term care. If an aging parent needs ongo...
08/28/2026

Here's a myth-buster for anyone with aging parents: Medicare DOESN'T cover long-term care. If an aging parent needs ongoing help with daily living, you'll need to cover the costs with savings, long-term care insurance, or Medicaid.

Unfortunately, many families don't find out about Medicaid's 5-year look-back period until it's too late. Generous, well-intentioned gifts and financial support can delay your parent's access to benefits.

I wrote up what I'm learning about this (full disclosure, I'm not an elder law attorney, just paying attention to what my clients run into).

https://janetberryjohnsoncpa.substack.com/p/are-you-already-inside-the-medicaid?r=2bx0jw

08/27/2026

5 financial tasks that feel overwhelming but take less than 30 minutes each:

1. Requesting your free credit reports from all three credit bureaus
2. Updating your beneficiary designations on your IRA and 401(k) after a divorce or death
3. Logging into the Social Security Administration website to see your projected Social Security benefit
4. Canceling one subscription you forgot you had (check your credit card statement right now)
5. Writing down your account numbers, institution names, and login hints in one secure place your family could find

Thinking about storing your parent's Power of Attorney in a safe deposit box? Don't.If something happens and the person ...
08/26/2026

Thinking about storing your parent's Power of Attorney in a safe deposit box? Don't.

If something happens and the person named in the POA needs those documents, they usually can't get into the box without... the documents inside it. It's a locked-door problem with the key on the other side.

It also assumes a few things that don't hold up in a emergency: that they know the box exists, that they know which bank, and that they know the POA is actually in there.

That's a lot to assume when someone's in the hospital and you're trying to act fast.

If your parent has a Power of Attorney or Advance Healthcare Directive, they owe it to whoever they named to:

- Talk through what they actually want
- Tell them exactly where the documents live
- Make sure those documents are accessible when they're needed

A labeled folder or binder at home works better than a safe deposit box for this specific reason. The person named needs to know it's there and be able to grab it quickly.

Follow for more documents most families store the wrong way.

Somehow, you became the one who handles everything.Your siblings say thanks, maybe. But when they show up, it's with que...
08/25/2026

Somehow, you became the one who handles everything.

Your siblings say thanks, maybe. But when they show up, it's with questions, not help. "Did you check on the insurance?" "What's happening with the house?" Not "what can I take off your plate."

That's not an accident. Families default to whoever seems capable enough to just handle it, and nobody asks what handling it actually costs that person.

If you're doing all the work while getting second-guessed from the sidelines, a family group text isn't going to fix that. What actually helps is bringing in someone outside the family who can carry part of the load and keep things neutral.

That's a lot of what I do with clients: structure, transparency, and documentation around a parent's finances, so there's less room for confusion, fewer arguments, and a lot more peace of mind for the person actually doing the work.

Need backup? DM me and let's talk.

Drowning in your parent's paperwork? You're not alone.One question I get a lot is, "What do I actually need to keep, and...
08/24/2026

Drowning in your parent's paperwork? You're not alone.

One question I get a lot is, "What do I actually need to keep, and what can go in the shred pile?"

Some documents matter. If your parent owned real estate, keep anything related to the property and any major improvements for at least seven years after it sells. That paperwork can affect their tax return long after the sale closes.

Other things are just taking up space. All those appliance manuals in the junk drawer? You can find that information online in about ten seconds. Old bank statements from a closed account, expired insurance policies, warranty cards for things that got thrown out years ago: none of it needs to survive the sort.

Knowing what to keep and what to let go of saves you time and makes the whole pile feel less impossible.

If you're staring at stacks of your parent's paper and don't know where to start, I can help you sort through it, literally and emotionally. DM me and let's set up a time to talk.

Sticky notes. A spreadsheet you update twice a year. A stack of unopened mail on the counter you've been meaning to get ...
08/21/2026

Sticky notes. A spreadsheet you update twice a year. A stack of unopened mail on the counter you've been meaning to get to.

If that's your system for managing your parent's finances, you don't really have a system yet.

The sticky-note approach falls apart because it depends on you remembering everything, and there's already too much to remember. A missed bill turns into a late fee. A password nobody wrote down turns into a locked-out account when you need it most. An account you didn't know existed turns into money that's just sitting there.

A real system needs one place for documents, one place for passwords, and a regular time you actually check both.

If you want help building that, DM me and let's get started.

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6818 Grover Street Ste 402
Omaha, NE
68106

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