When my Mom went into the nursing home, I had to activate her Long Term Care Insurance. So I visited our insurance agent and he talked to the insurance company and told them that who he was and that I was in the room and then he handed the phone to me and I gave my permission for the insurance company to talk to my insurance agent. I was able to get some information that day without sending them the Durable POA document. Once I sent the POA document to the insurance company, then I was able to get more "private financial" information. The insurance company may ask your mother to "listen in" to the conversation if she can.
"bicycler" has done an excellent job of describing the POA and guardianship to you. I would suggest that you Google the Judicial Department for your state for POA and Guardianship information as each state has different requirements. You should be able to find a flowchart about the process along with all of the documents that will need to be completed for POA, guardianship and conservatorship. If your Mother has a farm or a business, then some states will require that you become the guardian and conservator.
I have Durable POA for my Mom, but she became delusional and a "By-the-Book" Social Service Assistant at the nursing home where Mom is believed Mom's delusions and helped Mom change her POA because Mom would cry whenever I visited or phone her. Also, Mom and I "growled" at each other a few times because I tried to redirect Mom or tried to correct Mom's delusional thinking and Mom got angry at me. So I had to petition for guardianship of Mom. An "Attorney Ad Lidem" or "Temporary Attorney" was assigned by the court to represent Mom (Luckily she was a Elder Law Attorney.) After several attorney meetings over 5 months, the Attorney Ad Lidem decided that my Mom did NOT know what she was doing when she changed her POA so the POA reverted back to me. It cost our family almost $15,000. If I had had to become my Mom's guardian and conservator (because of our farms), it would have cost close to $25,000 and I would have had to be "bonded" which cost another $10,000. So God was watching over us and I was reassigned my Mom's Durable POA. Thank God.
Good Luck and God Bless on your "journey" to obtain guardianship of your Mother.
Jeffsponaugle, my experience with my dad's insurance companies is that if they could talk to him on the phone to get his permission for them to talk to me, then they would talk to me. That might work for you and would be the quickest solution to your immediate need.
However, a durable power of attorney (DPOA) is a more permanent and better solution and unless your mother has been declared incompetent by a court, she may still be sufficiently competent to sign such a document. DPOAs need to be notarized and ethical notaries public won't notarize documents if they think a person does not understand the document being signed, but having just an Alzheimer's diagnosis does not automatically make a person incompetent. Eventually your having a DPOA for both health care and financial affairs (or guardianship and conservatorship) will become necessary as your mother's Alzheimer's dementia progresses.
Guardianship will probably cost several thousand dollars and result in you having to keep good records and file at least annual reports with a court. It's a last-resort solution, but also the hardest for anyone to overcome and cause trouble in the future. I don't recommend guardianship unless you've already tried and failed to get DPOA or you're otherwise certain that you can't get DPOA, or you have siblings, or your mother has other relatives, who are likely to cause you and/or her problems in the future.
"bicycler" has done an excellent job of describing the POA and guardianship to you. I would suggest that you Google the Judicial Department for your state for POA and Guardianship information as each state has different requirements. You should be able to find a flowchart about the process along with all of the documents that will need to be completed for POA, guardianship and conservatorship. If your Mother has a farm or a business, then some states will require that you become the guardian and conservator.
I have Durable POA for my Mom, but she became delusional and a "By-the-Book" Social Service Assistant at the nursing home where Mom is believed Mom's delusions and helped Mom change her POA because Mom would cry whenever I visited or phone her. Also, Mom and I "growled" at each other a few times because I tried to redirect Mom or tried to correct Mom's delusional thinking and Mom got angry at me.
So I had to petition for guardianship of Mom. An "Attorney Ad Lidem" or "Temporary Attorney" was assigned by the court to represent Mom (Luckily she was a Elder Law Attorney.) After several attorney meetings over 5 months, the Attorney Ad Lidem decided that my Mom did NOT know what she was doing when she changed her POA so the POA reverted back to me. It cost our family almost $15,000. If I had had to become my Mom's guardian and conservator (because of our farms), it would have cost close to $25,000 and I would have had to be "bonded" which cost another $10,000. So God was watching over us and I was reassigned my Mom's Durable POA. Thank God.
Good Luck and God Bless on your "journey" to obtain guardianship of your Mother.
However, a durable power of attorney (DPOA) is a more permanent and better solution and unless your mother has been declared incompetent by a court, she may still be sufficiently competent to sign such a document. DPOAs need to be notarized and ethical notaries public won't notarize documents if they think a person does not understand the document being signed, but having just an Alzheimer's diagnosis does not automatically make a person incompetent. Eventually your having a DPOA for both health care and financial affairs (or guardianship and conservatorship) will become necessary as your mother's Alzheimer's dementia progresses.
Guardianship will probably cost several thousand dollars and result in you having to keep good records and file at least annual reports with a court. It's a last-resort solution, but also the hardest for anyone to overcome and cause trouble in the future. I don't recommend guardianship unless you've already tried and failed to get DPOA or you're otherwise certain that you can't get DPOA, or you have siblings, or your mother has other relatives, who are likely to cause you and/or her problems in the future.