Anonymous wrote:
I attended a workshop by an Elder Care Lawyer who pointed out that just because you have a legal Power of Attorney, it may not be enough. Banks are paying a lot more attention to POAs having been burned by various situations. You need to consult each financial institution brick and mortor as well as online to see if they have any particular forms an appointed POA must complete ahead of time. When the time is needed, this will make getting access to accounts and dealing with financial institutions go a lot smoother. This has happened to individuals who actually have a local relationship with a bank. One bank noted for doing this was Bank of America.

It often seems to be recommended to get your name on at least one bank account to be able to continue to cover on-going expenses, plus cover immediate expenses which may come up. I would think with the major financial institutions parents deal with, this approach would also be logical in having smooth access. However, check to see what their policy is as folks show up with false POAs etc.

POA expires on death. It’s only useful for expenses paid and reimbursed up to that point.

If you have signature authority on an account but are not a joint owner, you will not be able to exercise that authority after the last owner passes. It will go to probate.

If you have a joint tenancy account your parents need to be able to set up the rest of the testamentary documents to fairly divide assets. That will be tricky because the value of the jointly held account will fluctuate.

Also, If your parents are not local get them to get their mail at a PO Box.

I attended a workshop by an Elder Care Lawyer who pointed out that just because you have a legal Power of Attorney, it may not be enough. Banks are paying a lot more attention to POAs having been burned by various situations. You need to consult each financial institution brick and mortor as well as online to see if they have any particular forms an appointed POA must complete ahead of time. When the time is needed, this will make getting access to accounts and dealing with financial institutions go a lot smoother. This has happened to individuals who actually have a local relationship with a bank. One bank noted for doing this was Bank of America.

It often seems to be recommended to get your name on at least one bank account to be able to continue to cover on-going expenses, plus cover immediate expenses which may come up. I would think with the major financial institutions parents deal with, this approach would also be logical in having smooth access. However, check to see what their policy is as folks show up with false POAs etc.

Anonymous wrote:Have them sign medical and financial power of attorney documents so you or one of your siblings can handle their medical and financial matters legally when they are no longer able to.

I think first they need to sign them for each other so mom can do it for dad and visa versa. Then when both are incompetent, that responsibility needs to roll over to one of your siblings.

This is really important!

Many financial institutions have their own forms you will need to use. Not just your regular power of attorney. The IRS has their own too. Have on online social security account the parent can manage. You can’t legally manage it but if they have an online account they can change addresses, etc.

I’m working on my parents estate now. All of this is good advice.

A few other things to consider. Even if probate is uncontested it will take several months to get named executor. Then you need Letters and you need to go to each institution and get control of accounts to start disbursing funds.

In the meantime you will incur the same monthly expenses of keeping up your parents property. Plus funeral expenses.

The best way to handle this as a parent is to have enough money in a POD checking account that the child who becomes executor can cover everything out of their share of the inherited money. If it’s POD all you need is the proof of death. That takes only about 2 weeks.

Also, be sure your heirs know about the POD. I had a major money center bank not tell me this for months until I tried to use my executor status to cash it to the estate account.

Finally, your estate bank account must be domiciled in the decedents state of residence. That’s inconvenient if you are a long way away. It will help if you’re an existing customer of a money center bank, even if only a small account. They can use a branch in the correct state to open the account but you can manage it from here. If you have what’s called a seasoned relationship with them (usually 6 months) you can get more services, Medallions, etc.

Passwords for bank, investments, info on what bills are paid automatically and when, where past taxes are and contact info for accountant

My parents had a list of their medications in a pill bottle in the refrigerator door. The actual medications were in a variety of places, but in an emergency, someone could just grab the list to give to the hospital.

Best thing I did was putting my name on checking and savings accounts. Having access to these accounts made life a lot easier when shit really hit the fan.