Follow
Share

Going to look into guardianship. Department of Aging and Disability. Here I go learning about something else, new. My questions seem pretty short because I don't know much about it. I know that someone may be able to help me with this one also. Thanks so much!

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Do you have a question? Why would you want guardianship?
(0)
Report

Well, POAs can be revoked or changed by the person granting them at any time. Guardianship determines that the person cannot manage their own affairs and is not legally competent, so obtaining a guardianship and changes in guardianship have to go through a more formal court process. Sometimes a POA and a couple of incapacity letters from doctors will be enough for what you need which spares the person from being notified that a guardianship case is going to court, which is generally required. If in doubt, get with an eldercare attorney or an estate planner. And OMG, yes, the learning curve on all this is STEEP. I found I had to learn and learn fast about an area I really knew nothing about, and I'm not sure I wanted to know about (!) Even then looking back, we needed to know a lot more a lot sooner. You can search this site and find some expert answers too, and bear in mind each state's law and the wasy each POA is written can vary.

Just in case no one has mentioned it to you, keep a copy of both the financial and the healthcare POAs handy for showing, faxing, and e-mailing. If you are mobile and on a lot of different computers, I recommend Dropbox or something similar. Type yourself a neat list of all the phone numbers for all your loved one's contacts, services, credit cards, bank accounts, etc and store it somewhere safe (at least password protected).
(2)
Report

Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter