Is there a way to find out if an irrevocable contract has already been arranged?
My question concerns pre-planning funeral for Medicade
Both my brother and I shared DPOA for mom. Mom has dementia, thou still resides in her own home. (Still owns) My brother lives with mom says "established residency". My relationship with my brother has soured and he will not allow me to visit mom. He hires out caregiving services.
I have joint savings with mom which is one of the reasons my brother is upset as he would like total control of mom's finances. Before mom's savings is used up, my question is I would like to pre-arrange mom's funeral and place in escrow, Irrevocable Contract. I have a quote from the funeral home.
Now is there a way to find out if thru the State (Michigan)
if a Irrevocable Contract has already been arranged. My
brother would not tell me and that's a lot of money to lose
if there are two contracts made out. My brother may have
gone to a different funeral home than where mom had requested.
Any comments on this subject are appreciated.. Thank you
Expert Answer
Unfortunately, you are in a difficult situation. You want to know if your brother has already made an irrevocable contract for your mother with a funeral home. Clearly, it's important that you learn the answer to that question. But your brother won't tell you if he has or not.
I doubt if the state of Michigan can provide you with the answer to your question, because I doubt if there is any law or rule in Michigan that would require irrevocable funeral contracts to be registered with some central agency. But I am not an expert in Michigan funeral law, so there's at least a theoretical possibility that Michigan has some unusual practice that requires central recording of these contracts. All I can suggest is that you do a Google search, starting with "Michigan, funeral homes, irrevocable contracts," and see what you can find.
Perhaps you could suggest to your brother that having two irrevocable funeral contracts would not be in your mother's interest at all, so on her behalf he can tell you if he's already made one.