legal question

**moving-target** · 01-13-14, 02:26 PM

so my mother is about to come into some money thru a property sale and with her dementia / alzhimers i'll have to sign papers and what not which leads me to power of attorney / guardianship

would i need some sorta lawyer for this or call up a court and set up something with a judge or hows this sorta thing work ?

and my borther and sister have left her with some bad debt i think if i become her legal gaurdian does that debt become mine and affect my credit and what not ?

**grayman** · 01-13-14, 02:48 PM

She has to grant you power of attorney so I would talk to a lawyer about this before you do anything.

And I don't believe her debt can/will effect you as her power of attorney/guardian. Typically you have to be part of the original contract or an amended contract in order to be responsible for debt.

I'm no lawyer, so I could be totally wrong about all of this.

**Phyrelight** · 01-13-14, 02:51 PM

The fact that you mention she is having issues with Alzheimer and dementia means her freely giving you power of attorney without legal challenge later is moot. If she was in her right mind the paperwork itself just needs to be notarized in most states to be legally binding. You are better off going through an attorney who can also form a trust and place the proceeds from the sale of the house. If you isolate her resources and debt to her trust its no longer your personal liability. An attorney can discuss this further. By placing it in a trust you also streamlines the passing of the ownership of the trust and any monies left over without having to pay inheritance taxes which would be required if she gave you the money directly. The short of it, if she has already been diagnosed with anything that would create a legal challenge to your control of the estate go through and attorney which will get a judge to decree it based on medical necessity

*disclaimer, I am not an attorney nor do I present myself to be one. Any advice given here is simply an opinion and as such should be taken as such and the advice of qualified council should always be sought out and prevail.

**grayman** · 01-13-14, 02:59 PM

That's what I meant to say...

**AetheLove** · 01-13-14, 03:09 PM

I've done some of what you're talking about. I have siblings, and parents, and we've done some planning.

We've done powers of attorney. We've established health proxies. We've made wills. We have set aside some assets to protect. We have talked about end-of-life issues, and made plans for the variety of ways that can work out.

From what I can tell, it's not impossible to take care of most of this without a lawyer. At no point were we required to have legal representation. The only thing I think you absolutely have to have at some point is a notary.

That said, I urge you to find a lawyer to help you with these things. We were able to do this planning in the best of circumstances, but we could never have done it competently on our own. All the siblings get along. My parents were able to be a part of the planning. My siblings and I did considerable reading and work, and our family was able to direct the process, but getting professional advice was vital.

We spoke to multiple lawyers, an accountant, and a financial adviser. We were very lucky to have had preexisting relationships with some of them. We found others through the recommendations of people we trusted.

Good planning will help protect your mother, and you (and your siblings) from at least some debt issues. Planning can also have a huge effect on how much, and how soon, various insurance sources will pay for your mother's care. The details will vary by state. From what I know, your mother's debts do not pass to you on her death - but the debts do bear on her estate. Unless they are protected, her assets will get picked over by creditors before any of it goes to heirs.

There are ways to protect some assets, but you have to do this ahead of time.

This will cost money. The value of the assets in play will have an effect on how much advice you need and how much it will cost. But don't do this on your own. You mentioned a judge. If you know a judge (who you trust), ask them for a pointer or a referral. Finding a lawyer we trusted was the most important thing we did. In our case, the firm (and lawyer) we went with didn't charge us for the first consultation (which lasted about 90 minutes).

If you have specific questions about my experience, I will try to answer them. I learned a lot in the process. But all my answers will start with "I'm not a lawyer. This is only how it went for me."

Cheers,

AetheLove

**deathgodusmc** · 01-13-14, 03:14 PM

Get a lawyer to do it. If someone decided to fight it there is no question as to whether it was done legally due to her health issues.

**salty99** · 01-13-14, 03:30 PM

Get a lawyer. My family has dealt a ton with this sort of thing. We've also dealt a ton with property sales, inheritance, and we've had the unfortunate experience of business partners letting their greed get the better of them and do some fairly underhanded things to try and force their debt on us.

Finance laws regarding certain scenarios sometimes even vary from state to state. It's better for everyone involved if you know exactly what you're getting into with stuff like that. Never know when Uncle Sam is gonna come back to bite you with an audit; better safe than sorry whenever there is money involved

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

**moving-target** · 01-13-14, 04:05 PM

its only a 6,000 deal nothing huge but yeah just to protect her and her money i need to do a guardianship

**dex71** · 01-13-14, 04:28 PM

Originally Posted by moving-target

its only a 6,000 deal nothing huge but yeah just to protect her and her money i need to do a guardianship

Talk to a lawywer. Look in the phone book for guys who do wills and estates....they will be able to help you. Likely, it won't cost you anything to talk to them. Many times, the money they can save you will more than pay their fee. It's not just about taxes and debt. If your mother is going to eventually require full-time long-term care, there are things you can do to make sure she is able to keep some of her own money.

Do her the favor of talking to a lawyer. They all aren't ambulance chasers.....Some are very good people who help others through some pretty rough times.