I need my grandmother to sign POA while she is in the hospital but I am currently out of state. My question is can I do this remotely? Either someone at the hospital with FaceTime and a notary.
Courtneyrae: You should retain an elder law attorney, who should be able to handle the remote signature with witness by a notary public IF your grandmother is of sound mind.
Elder Law Attorney in her area - ASAP. Ask your attorney for a referral or call the Legal Aid Society. A hospital ombudsman or social worker can probably assist with actual delivery of paperwork and witnessing her signature (one of them may be a notary).
I was able to get POA for my ex-husband who had just been transferred from a hospital to a nursing home, but he was still able to understand and agree to. I did not need an attorney. The nursing home had a Notary on staff, and I paid her fee of $10.00. I printed out the free POA forms from the Internet and deleted the unnecessary verbiage. Be sure to get both the medical and financial forms. We were able to do the signing via email. All very simple. Check with the Social Worker at the hospital. They do this all the time and will be very helpful. Best of luck to you.
Yes, your grandmother can appoint you from her hospital. You should have an attorney do this and you should coordinate it. A POA is only as good as the attorney who writes it as it deliniates EXACTLY what you can do. It is too late to amend it when grandmother is no longer competent to do this. You say "I need my grandmother to sign...." etc. Your grandmother does this because SHE needs YOU to act in her behalf should she be unable. Be certain you know you are serving at her wishes and at her whims and that she can only do this while competent and you can only serve in this legal fiduciary capacity if you know ALL it entails. You, if you take on this duty, are responsible for accounting for every penny in and every penny out of grandmother's accounts, and this done by record keeping that's meticulous. Notaries usually will visit to sign these, but an attorney is almost always his own notary to do this. It will be more expensive with his visiting there. Unless your grandmother is very sharp indeed, do this by attorney only. Best of luck. Hope you will update. For my brother the notary was free, and suggested by the hospital Social Worker, so coordinate with the Social worker who may be enormous help to you and your grandmother. Do know that a notary attests only that this is your grandmother's signature, but an attorney doing the POA there with grandmother attests that she knows what she is conferring on you and is doing this with full knowledge aforethought, important when you are having something done in this rushed manner from hospital. This would all go much much better if you could be there. And do know you will be asked to exit the room when the attorney discusses with Grandmother the full import of the powers she is giving to you.
The assigned person for a POA does not need to be present nor do they sign saying they except the responsibility. Someone can assign you POA without you even knowing it. The laws need to change in that respect. Same with an Executor. Someone can assign you without you even knowing. Both are big jobs. I was glad I was retired when I had the responsibilities of both. Mom only had a house but that was a pain.
Yes, you can refuse the assignment for POA and hopefully the principle is of sound mind and can assign someone else if not, they are left with no POA. Executor, if you step down, Probate can assign someone else.
Contact your county office of aging , they may have listings of traveling notary. I needed my moms will updated. Notary took care of it , provided the two witnesses needed. The hospital may have a notary for hire possibly.
you will have to prepare the documents. Easily done online. Your grandmother cannot have been declared incompetent. Etc…
It may depend on the state but in my mothers while we were there we didn’t need to be and two of us live out of state so you don’t need to reside there either. If your grandmother has an attorney who knows her and has for a while that’s who I would ask to do this. My mothers attorney brought with him a JR attorney from his office and used a nurse at the rehab where Mom was as witnesses.
Can you make a special trip to see your grandmother? The two of you must be presently together, and she must be of sound mind to sign documents with pen and paper. Depends on her condition. If dementia or other impaired mental state, she is incompetent to sign.
If she is still of sound mind, an attorney and witness can come with the lawyer. that she hires. They can drive to see grandma. My brother was going on hospice and created his will and POA while in rehab. I will tell you that he could not remember a listing on all his beneficiaries so I still had to deal with probate on a couple of his assets. So the answer is the lawyer needs to be local to the client. Local laws may require 2 witnesses. Ideally the appointment should be generated by her. Otherwise, you seek conservatorship in the court district where grandma lives.
You state in your profile that grandma has Alzheimer's/dementia. If she has been declared incompetent then she can not sign any legal documents. If she did not appoint someone POA prior to the diagnosis or at a point where a lawyer thought in his or her opinion she was cognizant enough to understand the documents then you may have to seek Guardianship. If the hospital needs a POA to make decisions they can seek temporary Guardianship, it might be possible that you could be appointed temporary Guardian for a time until permanent Guardianship can be established. If they do not allow you to be temporary Guardian the Court will appoint one and grandma will be a Ward of the State until a family member is appointed
Courtneyrae, first we need to know why your Grandmother is in the hospital?
Are you having an Elder Law Attorney prepared the medical/financial Power of Attorney for the State that your Grandmother is living in?
There is something called Docu-Sign website that stores electronic signatures, but your Grandmother would need to have internet ability to use it. Personally I do not like electronic signatures, we refused to use it at work where signatures are needed all the time.
Or, get on a plane.
You say "I need my grandmother to sign...." etc. Your grandmother does this because SHE needs YOU to act in her behalf should she be unable. Be certain you know you are serving at her wishes and at her whims and that she can only do this while competent and you can only serve in this legal fiduciary capacity if you know ALL it entails. You, if you take on this duty, are responsible for accounting for every penny in and every penny out of grandmother's accounts, and this done by record keeping that's meticulous.
Notaries usually will visit to sign these, but an attorney is almost always his own notary to do this. It will be more expensive with his visiting there.
Unless your grandmother is very sharp indeed, do this by attorney only.
Best of luck. Hope you will update. For my brother the notary was free, and suggested by the hospital Social Worker, so coordinate with the Social worker who may be enormous help to you and your grandmother.
Do know that a notary attests only that this is your grandmother's signature, but an attorney doing the POA there with grandmother attests that she knows what she is conferring on you and is doing this with full knowledge aforethought, important when you are having something done in this rushed manner from hospital.
This would all go much much better if you could be there. And do know you will be asked to exit the room when the attorney discusses with Grandmother the full import of the powers she is giving to you.
Yes, you can refuse the assignment for POA and hopefully the principle is of sound mind and can assign someone else if not, they are left with no POA. Executor, if you step down, Probate can assign someone else.
you will have to prepare the documents. Easily done online. Your grandmother cannot have been declared incompetent. Etc…
fastest way maybe an attorney…
If she has been declared incompetent then she can not sign any legal documents.
If she did not appoint someone POA prior to the diagnosis or at a point where a lawyer thought in his or her opinion she was cognizant enough to understand the documents then you may have to seek Guardianship.
If the hospital needs a POA to make decisions they can seek temporary Guardianship, it might be possible that you could be appointed temporary Guardian for a time until permanent Guardianship can be established. If they do not allow you to be temporary Guardian the Court will appoint one and grandma will be a Ward of the State until a family member is appointed
Are you having an Elder Law Attorney prepared the medical/financial Power of Attorney for the State that your Grandmother is living in?
There is something called Docu-Sign website that stores electronic signatures, but your Grandmother would need to have internet ability to use it. Personally I do not like electronic signatures, we refused to use it at work where signatures are needed all the time.