with a financial advisor and friend? After taking care of my Dad until he passed at 93, my brother and family have no contact with me because of hard feelings. The background to this is too long to go into, but the upshot is that I can't trust them to make financial/medical decision on my behalf. What is the best way to ensure my security should I become incapable of answering for myself? A trust with a CPA as financial trustee and a friend as personal trustee to make medical and personal decisions for me, or a DPOA with CPA and a Medical POA with friend for the same purpose? I've already set up a will. I fear, should I become incapable of answering for myself, that my brother - who has little conscience and who would take my savings and leave me destitute - would be given guardianship of me by the courts if my documentation wasn't set up correctly. Have gotten different advise from both CPA and unassociated attorney who specializes in wills. Also, does anyone have any advise concerning who to ask to be DPOA and medical POA? Any advise or insight will really help. Thanks to all who read this and my wishes for your good health and happiness as you continue with caregiving - something I did for our Dad for several years into his 90s. It is a challenge but one I'm now so grateful I did. Hang in there, everyone!
For the financial part, I actually set up automatic online bill pay from my end. When I set up the bills, I set up each one individually in my online banking page and include account numbers along with the contact info and amounts I pay for that bill. You set the date and frequency for the bills and then save it. Make sure you have money in your account each month for each bill. And whatever money is left over can be automatically transferred into another account just by setting that up. Should you become incapacitated your bills will automatically get paid as long as you get direct posit from your federal benefits. Best yet, don't have no other name on your account but yours, but have only your name on the account so no one else has access to it.
What I would do in the event you should become incapacitated is start getting opinions from different lawyers who specialize in wills and estates. Explain the situation and your wishes. Should you need a guardian, the court may end up appointing one themselves. This happened to my foster dad when he had no bio family left. The prosecutor's daughter for our town ended up becoming his guardian around the time he was to be put into a nursing home. We never saw it coming until it happened.
What you can do event of an emergency is select someone you trust as an emergency contact. You can do this when you register at your local hospital and even with your own doctors when you fill out the paperwork for your records. I don't have any family either, and I'm even making my own will and I'm even doing a funeral preneed. You make your preneed through your funeral home and instead of paying the funeral home directly, you pay the insurance company. Your turn your policy over to the funeral home's ownership if you're on Medicaid. This protects you against Medicaid thinking you have a cashable source. If the funeral home changes ownership, you call the insurance company to home your pay your preneed policy payments and alert them of the new name change.
If you have any vehicles, you may want to make some decisions as to what you want to do about them. This is where you'll really need to speak with your estate attorney
Sadly, could NEVER trust my daughter for the same reasons you have mentioned. But one must face facts as they are and make a good decision.
I am at peace with this.