Possibly delirium is permanent due to pneumonia and age. He has a will but never signed a power of attorney to me or my siblings. He has a good amount of wealth and a ranch. How do we pay his bills for property etc. if the nursing home assess his estate?
Your goal is to use rehab time to get new legal and guardianship in place. If he has $ & assets, it can be done with fees coming out back end in my experience. I’d suggest you contact couple of NAELA level of elder law attys. I’d ask straight up of they have ranch lands experience & not consider any who do not. If there’s oil & gas stuff at all - even if lines are not in production since ages, so there’s been zero payout - I’d ask potential atty if they have mineral rights experience as well. There tends to be imo lots of missives on those w/ranches, livestock & mineral rights for just how much $ there actually is. Folks see all the land or wellhead and think, wow wealthy, but don’t realize just how many sections you need for cattle or that most O&G royalties produce very little. As an aside my hubs just walked in and told me it’s like $11.46 for WTX 40G barrel right now, omg there will be no production, you can’t afford to do it. Markets gonna be wtf brutal. But I digress, experienced NAELA atty will know who to contact to get the valuations done on ranch, livestock, futures, mineral rights so his financials are solid; you’ll need this so the guardianship can be set up & flow.
You have basically 3 weeks to get on this. One of you will be the most OCD, that is who I’d suggest be the one to get the documents together. There’s going to be one who is a good fit for this. Atty will have a document list they want. A lot of this in my experience can be gotten via on-line downloads from the courthouse. Like Warranty Deed $5.00, Release of Deed of Trust $8.00, Probate filings for mom if dad widower. Stuff in vital records - like marriage, divorce, death. - those take longer to get. To be all equitable, I’d suggest that each sibling put in $500 or 1k for costs to do this, xerox and get binders going for atty & siblings. They should keep track of their time.... what’s nice abt doing downloads is they are time stamped so establishes when stuff was done & then you tack on 1-2 hrs before for search time.
I’d suggest to have another sibling be point person for dads medical. Like is who the rehab, therapist, facility speaks to & they deal with bills that are in dads name. Again right now he should be on MediCARE rehab benefits. So facility is getting pretty decent $$ from MediCARE. It’s when he gets around day 18 that you’re likely to hear how’s his bill getting paid. Comprende? So you want imho to be getting guardianship hearing going by then.
Ive never been a guardian but have been an executor x 3. Both are heard in probate court. Guardianships can be expedited but needs an atty to shepherd this imo. Not a DIY. What might be easiest, is for the atty to be named a temporary guardian for financials with a sibling named for medical. Maybe 6 mo temporary or interim appointment. It will give y’all time to get valuations done and set up whatever might be needed. Then whomever gets named full guardian like in 6 mos. Probate court tend to have online portal for atty’s recognized by the court, so most stuff is filed this way. It’s pretty efficient especially if the OCD sibling has gotten lots of stuff downloaded for atty to use to fill out forms from. Or atty. can have paralegals & runners do all, if siblings don’t want to or there’s too much family dramarama. You know your family (& their spouses) best.
On rehab, to me it’s important he stay on rehab as long as possible. He HAS TO be “progressing”. If y’all need to be lil cheerleaders to get him up & doing physical therapy, do it. Good luck!