We recently found this post on funeral matters explaining the authorities of executors, guardians and power of attorney agents to control funeral arrangements. The post is limiting its advice to New Jersey laws, but a casual reader could lose sight of that limitation. With regard to executors, the post suggests that an executor will be
Power of Attorney
Mom’s Dementia and the empty house: Using the power of attorney to move on
One of the most difficult challenges for a financial POA agent is the parent’s empty house. Dementia has robbed the parent of the life skills needed to continue living at home and the health care POA agent has already made the decision to move Mom to an assisted living facility. As time passes, it becomes…
Avoiding Downgrades: Coupling the Preneed Contract with a Power of Attorney
The traditional funeral and burial remains the preference of many individuals. Understanding that this type of arrangement will be more expensive, many of those individuals purchase a preneed contract to spare their survivors a financial burden. But what happens when a child does not respect their parent’s preference for a traditional funeral and burial? Upon…
Mining the Internet for a Power of Attorney form: Is a Free Form Better than Nothing?
Free power of attorney forms may not provide what the client needs. …
Continue Reading Mining the Internet for a Power of Attorney form: Is a Free Form Better than Nothing?
Power of Attorney: It isn’t Necessarily Powerless
I saved this NYT article for a rainy day. Finding Out Your Power of Attorney Is Powerless describes situations where families had a financial institution reject a power of attorney subsequent to the principal becoming incapacitated with dementia or Alzheimer’s. My family had a similar experience recently when my mother-in-law had to be admitted to…
Transition Plans and the Client with Dementia: Caregiver Challenges
A recent Guardian article offers excellent advice to caregivers for individuals with dementia. The author, Cynthia Dearborn, shared her experiences about caring for a father with vascular dementia. Cynthia described how her father’s short-term memory became severely impaired, along with his judgment and reasoning skills. I am having a similar experience with a Transition Plans’…
End of Life Forums: Well Intended, but Sometimes Misleading
We find the AgingCare website to be a good source information for end of life planning. The website includes a forum for readers to post questions and offer their experiences. However, readers need to be careful when the forum is used to seek legal help on end of life issues. One such topic thread began…
Health Care Proxy: Someone with a Backbone
The Conversation Project recently posted a blog entry titled “Somebody with a Backbone”: Tips for Choosing a Health Care Proxy. We could not agree more with the post’s recommendations about how to go about selecting a power of attorney for health care decisions. The post includes a hyperlink to “How to” brochure that is…
Transition Plans: Family Support
The Kansas City Star recently devoted a column to Marty Schottenheimer, and his family’s support as he adjusts to life with Alzheimer’s. Coach Schottenheimer was diagnosed with the disease in his late 60’s, but continues an active life, with the assistance of his wife, son, and daughter-in-law. The column is a reminder that multiple family…
Designating the Right of Sepulcher: my mother’s confusing instructions
My mom died recently, and her failure to put in writing her final arrangements resulted in a family conflict.
My mother did not like discussing death, and avoided the topic of her own death at all costs. A few years ago, my mother asked that I prepare a durable power of attorney, and include powers…