Honestly, it's probably your best bet to convince them to sign power of attorney. If they (or someone else) challenges it, they'll have to prove that they were not of sound mind when they signed the paperwork and that's actually pretty hard to do unless the person has zero ability to hold themselves together. (You would be surprised how well crazy people mange to hold it together in courts.)
Taking this to court will be costly either way and contesting a power of attorney very seldom pans out for the person who signed their power away. As I mentioned in the subject, I have some powerful first hand experience with power of attorney woes. If you'd like to chat one on one, feel free to send me a PM or an email.I have some questions regarding power of attorney and a person who may be unfit to make their own decisions. I don't want to get into details here but if anyone has some general knowledge or firsthand experience with this I would love to be in touch or post here.
Thanks so much
Power of attorney is for when someone is competent and wants to have someone handle their affairs, financial and/or medical/health because they are going away or in the future may become incompetent or need help.
But once someone is already ill, or incompetent, they "don't know what they are signing" so the power of attorney would not be valid.
This has nothing to do with ordinary people who ma still be bat shit crazy!
...not be competent to execute a power of attorney. In that case, it may be necessary to go to probate court to have someone be appointed as conservator.
Here's a link to info about power of attorney. Number 4 is wrong though - it's harder to find notaries these days.
-- Modified on 4/22/2014 10:51:29 PM
On number 4, if you have an attorney you use regularly for any kind of purpose, you might ask if they have one in the office you could use for a small fee. A lot of law firms will pay the license fee or offer a small bonus, so people keep them up to date.
Attorneys have told me that conservatorship is an expensive ($5000) and time-consuming (several months) process. Power-of-attorney is relatively inexpensive (less than $1000) and instantaneous. It can even be done on your own with Blumberg or similar ready-made forms, though I don't recommend that.
The easiest way for you to proceed is to contact an attorney in your area. They should not charge you for a consultation to explain your options once you outline your situation. Usually attorneys who specialize in elder care have the most experience in this area, since POAs are more common with the elderly than with the general population.
Honestly, it's probably your best bet to convince them to sign power of attorney. If they (or someone else) challenges it, they'll have to prove that they were not of sound mind when they signed the paperwork and that's actually pretty hard to do unless the person has zero ability to hold themselves together. (You would be surprised how well crazy people mange to hold it together in courts.)
Taking this to court will be costly either way and contesting a power of attorney very seldom pans out for the person who signed their power away.
As I mentioned in the subject, I have some powerful first hand experience with power of attorney woes. If you'd like to chat one on one, feel free to send me a PM or an email.