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blondh137 Asked April 2011

I am the legal guardian of my mother. Can I file chapter 13 without affecting her accounts?


I am legal guardian of my mother. I am having financial difficulties and need to file chapter 13 bankruptcy. Will the court allow me to do so and still serve as guardian? Also, will it affect my mother's money? Her money is set up in a seperate account in my name as general guardian along wiuth her name.

igloo572 Apr 2011
This is sticky - you should get legal advice.

If you are not getting paid for guardianship then there should be no financial trail from her to you. If her accounts are only in her social security # but you have signature on it, the account shouldn't link to you. But if you have co-mingled accounts then there will be problems.

When you say legal guardian, do you mean you went before a judge and have been legally placed as her guardian or conservator? And do you have to go before the judge yearly or file a financial and status report on her every year - most guardian ships require something like this. Or are you her DPOA or POA and handle her affairs as POA rather than a true guardinanship?

Whatever the case you should consult an elder care attorney to do whatever to protect mom's money so it cannot be attached and her income is protected for her needs. Although it can be a PIA you may want to have anything hers going to an entirely different bank. What you don't want to have happen is that the state takes over as her guardian - this is really hard to change once it's done.

Why 13 and not 7?

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