Caregiving Legal Matters

Last updated: 16-Nov-2008

Conservatorship and Adult Guardianship: A Beginner's Guide

If your parent is in good health, you may not be thinking about her possible need for a conservatorship, or adult guardianship. But if you are considering this step, you're not alone. The unfortunate truth is that many elders have long periods toward the end of life when they're not able to make decisions...
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How can I take over caretaking decisions when my brother has power of attorney?

My brother has power of attorney over our mother, who is in a nursing home and has dementia. The nursing home has had problems getting in touch with him to make decisions for her. He is unwilling to make contact with me about her welfare. How can I take over making decisions for her care if he will not work with me on this or talk to me...
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How do I handle finances when I share POA with my sister and both parents have dementia?

Both my parents suffer from dementia?and have assets worth well over 350.000 pounds.??I don't want them to go into a home.? I'm their full time caregiver.??What do i do about there finances?? Both my sister and I?have power of attorney.
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Are living trusts and living wills the same?

Does a living will act the same as a living trust in the state of Virginia?
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What's the emergency procedure for obtaining durable power of attorney for finance or health care?

During a recent visit, I was dismayed to see how much my mother has declined mentally. She's refusing any help from me. What can I do to ensure that I can help and protect her when the time comes that she can't do it herself? I'm worried that if her faculties continue to erode, it will be too late.
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How do we get guardianship of my mother-in-law, who lives in a care facility and is out-of-state?

How do my wife and I obtain gaurdianship of my mother-in-law, who is at a care facility in Las Vegas, while we live in Oregon?
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Revocable Living Trusts: A Beginner's Guide

A revocable living trust is one of the single most important documents for your parents to have in their estate plan. It functions as a will, allows their estate to avoid probate, makes a potential guardianship process unnecessary, and gives them control of their assets for as long as they'd like or are able to manage them...
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Can my parent give durable power of attorney for healthcare to one child, and durable power of attorney for finance to another?

Please solve a debate in our family. I think my parents should give durable power of attorney for both healthcare and finance to one sibling, so that one person is in charge of helping to arrange for their care. My brother thinks these powers should go to different siblings. Who's right?
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If I'm the partner on a friend's checking account, is it legal for me to distribute the funds after death?

My neighbor asked me to be a partner on his checking account. I typed up a document stating what he wanted and had him sign it; I signed and had a witness sign, too. We went to the bank and he told the bank officer what he wanted done. The bank officer assured both of us that no one else could contest this arrangement...
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Does power of attorney make me responsible for medical bills?

My mother lives in a group home for mentally ill people. She shares a tiny half of a room with another woman for the sum of her SSI check. She manages her own funds. Her health is getting worse and she just turned 70 years old. If I get her to sign a medical power of attorney does it mean I will be responsible...
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What legal rights to do grandchildren have in determining whether grandma is fit to live alone?

My 95-year old grandmother insists on living out her last years alone in her Texas home. It is much too big for her to manage alone, but she refuses to hire help or move into an assisted living facility. Both of her sons are deceased, and all of us grandkids live out of state. What rights and responsibilities do we have under the law...
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Will my grandmother lose Medicare benefits if she is checked out of a rehab center without a doctor's approval?

My grandmother is 92 and she fell and broke her hip June 24. She was placed in a Health and Rehabilitation Center. She is not doing well. She will not eat and only wants to go home. My mother has medical power of attorney and has made arrangements to take her home to live with her...
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How can I get my mother the care she needs?

My mom has Alzheimer's and her husband, who is not my father, neglects her care. How can I help her healthwise? It is costly and they do not live close. I know that my sister has been appointed power of attorney in the trust, but does that mean that that takes over now that my mom has Alzheimer's...
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Financial and Legal Planning for Someone with Alzheimer's

There are many legal tools that can help you and the person in your care now and in the future. Financial and legal planning is necessary and should be started early. Planning for the future should include looking at income tax issues, protecting existing assets, saving for the future, and paying for care...
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Financial Management Forms and Documents

Will?a legal document that spells out how money and property is to be given out after death. If a person is disabled or does not have the physical or mental abilities to tend to his or her own affairs, other legal papers are needed.
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Planning for End-of-Life Care

Besides deciding how to pay for long-term care and estate planning (topics covered in the last two chapters), it is important to decide how future health care decisions will be made before things reach the crisis stage. These decisions should be recorded in legal documents for two reasons:
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How to Deal With Theft by a Caregiver

Today, people over age 50 control 70 percent of our nation's wealth. This sets the elderly up for a variety of theft schemes and scams, not because they're older and weaker, but simply because they have the money, and thieves know it.
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Documents to Bring to the Oncologist's Office

There's no point in pretending otherwise. Appointments with your parent's oncologist can be intimidating and overwhelming. You're attempting to digest extremely complex information, while trying to understand recommendations that are neither simple nor clear-cut. Often you'll be helping your parent weigh options with multiple unknowns...
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What's the difference between a guardianship and a conservatorship?

My mother, who lives on her own, refuses to sign a power of attorney for healthcare. I'm worried she'll have some sort of accident, and none of us will be able to help in her care. What can I do? Will I need a guardianship? A conservatorship?
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How to Get Paid for Being Your Parent's Caregiver

If you're one of more than 70 million people who provide unpaid care giving for a family member or friend, either in that person's home or in your own, you know that the time and energy burden can be enormous. In fact, you may have cut back or given up your paying job. Your smaller (or now nonexistent) paycheck may be pinching you hard...
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Prepare a Personal Care Agreement With Your Parent

Some seniors are able to pay their family caregiver from private funds, long-term care insurance benefits, or a state-sponsored assistance program.
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How can we find out if my mother-in-law had a will?

How can we find out if my mother-in-law had a will? She's been deceased for two months, and my brother-in-law says there is no will.
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Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Beginner's Guide

Helping your parent prepare for end-of-life medical decisions can be of great comfort to both your parent and to others in your family. The document that helps you do this is an advance health care directive or living will -- what it's called and what it includes depends on where your parent lives -- sometimes paired with a power of attorney for health care...
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Advance Health Care Directives and Living Wills: A Step-by-Step Guide

Few decisions are more personal -- involving both health and death -- than those embodied in an advance health care directive or a living will, or a similar document. Some individuals want their lives prolonged by any means necessary, while others want medical treatments withheld, allowing for a natural death...
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