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.
Do understand that as long as your grandmother is not diagnosed incompetent in her decisions, the decisions are her OWN TO MAKE even if they are unwise.
Therefore, speak to her. Try to get her to go to the bank with you and to get a personal spending account and have you take over other accounts as her POA for billpaying and so on. The bank manager can help with this IF SHE IS WILLING TO DO THIS.
If she is not, then you are basically sunk until you can get a diagnosis and likely a conservatorship which is a court action. All of that is costly and trying and in lieu of that many just allow the elder to spend it all up until it is gone.
Consider taking GRANDMOTHER WITH YOU and go ing to an elder law attorney about this where the three of you can discuss together how best to move forward to protect her. Be honest with her. If you can do nothing, then you can do nothing, and in that case I would resign POA and step away. Allow the state to take over as thought there were no family at all.
There is really nothing you can do.
My attorney said (paraphrasing):
”People do stupid stuff all the time that ends in bankruptcy. They are allowed to do so.”
If you think she is being abused you can call Adult Protective Services to come out and do an evaluation or you can take her to get one yourself but unless they find she is incompetent you just have to sit back and watch the train wreck. I found myself in that situation and then accused of stealing when I tried to move money around to safeguard it. As a result I resigned the POA.
I am sorry but it is a difficult situation to be in.
You have a fiduciary duty to protect her money.
You need a solid diagnosis and the ability to get yourself registered to take on her accounts and bills as her POA or you need to hire someone to do it for you if you are unaware of the meticulous record keeping required.
If it’s in effect now, you can take charge and safeguard her money for her.
So, bring GMA into her bank with your POA and tell them you want to protect her. They can offer that you can transfer $ to another account with your name on it. So she gets her pay and you transfer it (mine has no checkbook it’s only a savings acct. That way if an auditor looks all is transparent) you transfer $ back into it as needed.
Then you leave her as much/little as she may want to be able to spend. Restrict her access to the other income; give all financial institutions and creditors your email and they will send statements to you. Get all her bills ACH. Teach her to say that she’ll just give you a call right quick to make sure there’s enough available- or something, if someone comes by asking for cash. That’s elder abuse. You are her “secretary”. Lawyer if she doesn’t agree. Elder Law lawyer might be able to talk to her and that would save you thousands. Best of luck. Your Gma is lucky yo have you.
I agree that if, in the end, you get a lot of pushback and no cooperation from her you may have to resign as POA. I hope that doesn’t happen.
As for attorney’s who chalk up this kind of behavior to being “stupid”, I would remind them that just as your eyesight deteriorates as you age, so do other faculties- including the aging brain, which often loses the capacity to think and reason clearly. Older folks who fall for scams and other opportunistic financial exploitation by family or strangers are often suffering from normal aging rather than stupidity, that causes impaired judgement. That is where a POA comes in - like a good pair of eyeglasses.
It's not as easy as you're saying to just take control of a person's money and assets because you have a POA document.
It doesn't become active unless a person becomes incapacitated.
The grandmother would either have to willingly let the OP open new accounts and transfer her money into them so no one has access to it, or there has to be an actual diagnosis for why she's incapacitated or mentally incompetent.
A POA can't just do these things at will because they don't think someone is spending their money as they see fit.
It doesn't work like that.
YES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
See All Answers