By proceeding, I agree that I understand the following disclosures:
I. How We Work in Washington. Based on your preferences, we provide you with information about one or more of our contracted senior living providers ("Participating Communities") and provide your Senior Living Care Information to Participating Communities. The Participating Communities may contact you directly regarding their services. APFM does not endorse or recommend any provider. It is your sole responsibility to select the appropriate care for yourself or your loved one. We work with both you and the Participating Communities in your search. We do not permit our Advisors to have an ownership interest in Participating Communities.
II. How We Are Paid. We do not charge you any fee – we are paid by the Participating Communities. Some Participating Communities pay us a percentage of the first month's standard rate for the rent and care services you select. We invoice these fees after the senior moves in.
III. When We Tour. APFM tours certain Participating Communities in Washington (typically more in metropolitan areas than in rural areas.) During the 12 month period prior to December 31, 2017, we toured 86.2% of Participating Communities with capacity for 20 or more residents.
IV. No Obligation or Commitment. You have no obligation to use or to continue to use our services. Because you pay no fee to us, you will never need to ask for a refund.
V. Complaints. Please contact our Family Feedback Line at (866) 584-7340 or
[email protected] to report any complaint. Consumers have many avenues to address a dispute with any referral service company, including the right to file a complaint with the Attorney General's office at: Consumer Protection Division, 800 5th Avenue, Ste. 2000, Seattle, 98104 or 800-551-4636.
VI. No Waiver of Your Rights. APFM does not (and may not) require or even ask consumers seeking senior housing or care services in Washington State to sign waivers of liability for losses of personal property or injury or to sign waivers of any rights established under law.I agree that: A.I authorize A Place For Mom ("APFM") to collect certain personal and contact detail information, as well as relevant health care information about me or from me about the senior family member or relative I am assisting ("Senior Living Care Information"). B.APFM may provide information to me electronically. My electronic signature on agreements and documents has the same effect as if I signed them in ink. C.APFM may send all communications to me electronically via e-mail or by access to an APFM web site. D.If I want a paper copy, I can print a copy of the Disclosures or download the Disclosures for my records. E.This E-Sign Acknowledgement and Authorization applies to these Disclosures and all future Disclosures related to APFM's services, unless I revoke my authorization. You may revoke this authorization in writing at any time (except where we have already disclosed information before receiving your revocation.) This authorization will expire after one year. F.You consent to APFM's reaching out to you using a phone system than can auto-dial numbers (we miss rotary phones, too!), but this consent is not required to use our service.
*If I am consenting on behalf of someone else, I have the proper authorization to do so. By clicking Get My Results, you agree to our
Privacy Policy. You also consent to receive calls and texts, which may be autodialed, from us and our customer communities. Your consent is not a condition to using our service. Please visit our
Terms of Use. for information about our privacy practices.
This money cannot be protected. It is rightfully your Sister's money. She, from all you say, is not adjudged as incompetent. I would not, were I you, seek POA. There are many legal things that must be done if you are POA and you are LEGALLY liable; you must be good at meticulous record keeping and you must deal with a huge number of entities. I would simply stay out of all this mess and visit your sister.
If you are asked to assume POA by your sister (and she can only do this if competent) I would say you are sorry and you cannot. Allow the state to assume guardianship. When they do, hand them over the pension checks,mineral rights checks, and whatever else she has, and let THEM take care of it
As I said, your profile indicates you are, as a family, living all together and trying to negotiate SEVERAL folks with severe mental issues. You have enough. Just visit your sister and love on her, and let the rest of the chips fall where they may.
If she assigns someone, great... but then she needs to go back onto private pay for her facility until the money is spent down. Some of those funds can go towards a pre-paid funeral that Medicaid will allow this "asset". The PoA will need to manage her finances so that when she reapplies for Medicaid she will qualify.
If she is assessed an incapacitated, therefore unable to create a PoA, then someone can pursue guardianship through the courts. Assuming no one would contest the guardianship, then the new guardian can then do what I mentioned above with the money. FYI pursuing guardianship can be very expensive ($10K) so not sure if this can come out the mineral money and be allowed by Medicaid (my *opinion* is that it should, but I'm not a professional). Then there's less to spend down.
Final scenario is that no family member gets PoA or guardianship: then the county will need to become the guardian. Then the country controls everything and family will have little to no say in where she resides, how her money is spent, what medical care she receives. It is not a contentious relationship but the county guardian by law needs to keep all her affairs and information private, even from close family. Upon her passing she will be cremated and a financial report accounting for where her money was spent will be sent to the next nearest living relative. The county will then ask where to send her cremains. This is how it went for my step FIL in our state, MN.
Your sister doesn't seem to have any "needs" on which to spend the inheritance, except the cost of the facility and maybe a pre-paid funeral (which I think Medicaid will allow up to $2500 but this may vary by state). So you will need to consider that you'll go through a lot just for her to get a pre-paid funeral and maybe have a private pay/private room for however many months it takes for her to spend down the money. After all that she'll just be moved back to her Medicaid bed. Not sure there's much of a "win" here for anyone.
Yes, I know that sounds harsh but you have a lot already on your plate with your son who is special needs and dealing with your brother who too has his own issues being bipolar. And you also have a daughter as well, right?
That facility your Sister is in has already had her sign off on legal documents to enable them to become her representative payee (as you described it “retirement redirected” which is great phrase) for her monthly income back in May of last year. So the NH did what was needed so they could get that $ for her Medicaid copay and be in compliance for LTC Medicaid.
Well….. If they were so proactive to be her rep payee back then, they can do whatever now to deal with her inherited 30K in mineral rights.
But imo they know this will not be simple & easy like it was to get her to sign off on rep payee….. & why they are wanting you to deal with it.
If I were you I’d send them a short 1 page certified letter that although you love your Sister dearly, you do not have the time or financial ability to reenter her life at this point in time to become her POA or guardian.
it sounds like you (yeah you & from your purse) will need to hire and pay an attorney to do either paperwork to allow you to become her POA if Sissy is competent and cognitive enough to do a POA; OR you’ll need to hire an atty to have you file for guardianship for Sissy; plus for even more fun in all this, whatever happens (POA or guardianship) that 30K $ to Sissy will take her over the income & assets limits for LTC Medicaid; so Sissy would have to do a “spend down” and then re-apply for Medicaid. All this is time consuming to do with plus involving compliance to Medicaid on every cent. All this will fall on you to do. All this for a mere 30K…. 30k is maybe 2 or 3 months of private pay. Sis cannot easily reimburse you for what you on your own paid the attorney as it looks like gifting; she cannot reimburse for your time as it too looks like gifting. Medicaid tends to take the view that what we do is done out of a sense of familial responsibility and without expectation of compensation. And I think we all readily do what we can for our elders or family. But there are limits. Please realize that And once you are on for being her POA or guardian, it’s on you from that point till forever to deal with any issues with Sissys Medicaid as Medicaid has renewals.
The facility has a Social worker and they have a law firm on retainer. Between those 2 they can do whatever to capture Sissys royalty $ and deal with her Medicaid. It will not be simple or easy, but they can do it in-house.
But the easier path is to move the problem over to you. To move the monkey over to your back. And it’s not a cute, trained little Capuchin monkey! You have a full plate as it is, let the NH deal with all this.