How best to tell a father that his decisions are not the best he has ever made?

[riderinthestorm]

5. +1. Its going to be a short enough run while Dad is still lucid with Alzheimers that it matters

If the OP can take "ownership" with him of the idea, he can exert a LOT of control to mitigate damage while helping him transition (and preserve assets if that's important).

The OP will only have this short time to connect and be with him. Kindness at this stage will mean they can live with themselves in the later stages when the indignities really start.

My grandmother desperately wanted to see Israel - "the Holy Land" - at the end of her life. She had plenty of money and we did our best to try to persuade her to go, however she could go - with one of us, alone, with a tour, with a nurse, but we really wanted her to go and finish this big dream. She didn't. She worried and fretted about how it would diminish what she "left us".

Well, it was all taken at the end by the nursing home and I regret to this day that we didn't push her harder to GO.

"Dreams" and the elderly are a tricky thing but I see an opportunity for the OP to have a delightful end run with his dad by taking ownership of the "idea" - together.