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[quote=Anonymous]My piece of advice:  Adult children and their parents need to discuss medical and durable POAs when the parents are still competent.  If a parent starts to decline, especially with dementia, it's generally too late to get POA; you then would need to go through the guardianship route, which is much more complicated and has a larger burden of proof.  A lot of the time, dementia causes paranoia and hallucinations, so the elderly person may not want to have anything to do with their children, who may have only their best interests at heart.  This leaves the situation ripe for scammers, and unscrupulous relatives to swoop in and take advantage of the situation for their own benefit.

Just because there is a POA, it doesn't mean it takes effect once the papers are drawn up.  They generally can't be implemented until the elderly parent is deemed incompetent (usually by two doctors).  I think there is a fear by elderly parents that once a POA is created, they have no control over their own lives.  Talking with parents (and the attorney who draws up the papers) should help to allay that fear.

Also, think about having backup POA and even a second back up added to the document when it is created.  If an elderly person designates their spouse or sibling as their POA, maybe by the time they start to decline and need help making decisions, their POA is either deceased or has dementia themselves.

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