My mother now lives with myself and my husband and has since last year after having a bad fall in her bath tub. I am her POA and also her Executor. I retired last November (before I planned) in order to give my Mother 24 hour care. Putting her in an assisted living home that would give her what she receives in my home would cost between $10-12 thousand a month in this area. Can I keep a record of what would be an acceptable monthly charge for her care and housing and charge it to her estate upon her death?
If mom doesn't agree you will have a difficult time getting any money after her death.
Contracts can not be retroactive so get this done now.
You can hire In Home 24 7 Caregivers for $12 an hr.
My 96 yr old Dad wanted to stay in his own home do I looked around for over a month and found a Caregiver eilling to accept $9 hr which is $512 a week.
So, as long as you're not charging more than $15 an hr, you probably will be OK.
If you need to make changes in your home like walk in bath tub, ect to accommodate her or adding a room, ect, food, personal items can all be charged to your mom before her assets divided up between siblings.
It worked out that she spent her pension and SS monthly for her expenses.
In other words, she was able to pay her way and I took care of her. It worked out.
It cost $120,000 over five years which was money well spent on her. The level of care was better than what she would have gotten from AL at $10,000 per month.
The problem is that if her health needs changed I would not have been able to provide the right level of care at home and she would have been out of money.
I worried about that.
Your mother has now been living with you for upwards of six months. Unless she is very impaired mentally, she must be aware that there are bills to pay and finances to manage. I should begin the conversation with her, first of all, and see how far you get.
How do you plan to arrive at a figure for that "acceptable monthly charge," by the way? Not challenging you, just asking.
I didnt ask a demented old man (dad), I just did it. He KNOWS I did and he is ok with it. I also get aid to be his caregiver because Medicare pays for it. There are medicare programs that pay 1200 or more per month. I got hired on as a home health aid by some company and he is their client and I am the employee but they dont pay for beans. Call your local chapter of Care Source or Elder Care or which ever company is the liaison for Medicare in your community. Whew..I'm out of breath.....
I found out from a Medicaid representative that I am not eligible to be my mother’s paid caregiver because I am her Healthcare Proxy (unless I decline to further be her Proxy).
What I can do for her (bc she has Vascular Dementia) is interview and hire a caregiver and get it paid through the State (if and when my mom is eligible for Medicaid). This is heartbreaking for me bc I left my job last year to take care of her myself only to find out now that once my savings runs out I need to go back to work, apply her for Medicaid and “learn” to comfortable with a stranger taking care of my most precious person.
#1 How old is mom?
#2 What do you expect to charge her per month?
#3 Her life expectancy is an unknown.
#4 Will she run out of funds?
Your profile indicates dementia, however if she is only in the early stages, she *might* be able to sign a caregiver agreement. We were able to have mom sign documents despite being in the early stages, in order to revise/add some things to the documents we had done before dad passed. The atty would interview her to make that determination. If yes, get a good legal caregiver agreement in place through this atty. DO also ask if there are tax implications with getting paid for her care (not recompense for living expenses, but providing care.)
IF she is determined to be incapable of signing, about the only options left are guardianship (this will take a big chunk of mom's assets!) and/or becoming SS rep payee.
Legit handling of SS funds really should be done via the rep payee. Initially when I took over mom's finances (she was still living in her condo) I just used my POA to manage her accounts. It would become an issue after we moved her to MC and planned to sell the condo. I needed to change the address to my PO Box as federal mail cannot be forwarded. The SS documentation specifically states that NO ONE should be using anyone else's SS funds unless they are rep payee. They do NOT honor any POAs (no federal entity does.) Others will say they just use mom or dad's account and all is fine, but by SS rules this is not legit. They *could* cause problems if they check.
SS requires an accounting at year end, but it is not difficult and mainly has to show that her funds were used for housing, food, medical care and any other necessities. Therefore you *could* come up with reasonable charges for her housing and food to cover the increases in your own costs. It would be best to keep detailed records, even if you have to buy her items separately and compare current house costs with what it was before she moved in (adjust some for regular increases.) NOTE: You are NOT allowed to use her SS funds to pay yourself! In order to sign up for this, call the local office, not the main #.
Primary reasons for doing this now is to have good legal standing AND ensure you get some recompense now. Waiting until she passes might result in you getting nothing for your time and efforts. The will is the will, and as executor you honor what the will says, not what you want. IF she has left everything to you, it might resolve some of your problem, BUT if she ever needs to go to a facility, despite your best intentions, her funds will be quickly used up, and you will get little or nothing. IF she ever needs Medicaid, anything you take without an agreement in place will be held against her and will delay approval.
Consult EC atty ASAP!!! (naela.org)
1. Have a caregivers contract drawn up
2. Have a rental agreement drawn up.
He said the rent agreement would be easier.
I had a realtor come in and assess the area she occupies and has access to.
He gave me a letter stating $850 a month would be fair market value.
So every month ghat amount is automatically transferred from her account to a separate account in my name. Only the rental money goes into this account.
She signed the rental agreement.
I called Medicaid to confirm this was acceptable to them.
If ever she needs to be placed on Medicare if she ever has to go into long Term Care, Medicare will not say this was a gift.
My elder attorney told me to cash mom's life insurance policies in.
He said if she ever had to apply for Medicaid they would want ghat money to be spent down before Medicaid kicked in.
My mom doesn't have much money. As of now she has about $25,000. From her life insurance. One was assigned to the funeral home to pay for her burial.
I have already informed my 2 brothers that if I am taking care of her in my home until she dies that They will not be getting any money if there is any left.
They both agreed that was ok. I understand that a lot of siblings would not agree.
She has no assets, no will.
I don't charge for my care or time. My mom would want to compensate me, but she has no money to do so. Otherwise, I may have drawn that up. Her insurance is paying for homehealth to come in though, but at some point this will stop. I have to apply for Medicaid in her name, but I'm still unclear on the ramifications of doing so. Not sure she qualifies anyhow, she's on the cusp of the income level. She has other monthly bills on debt she incurred over the years from unwise and frivolous spending too. Mom was never good with money mgmt.
Also, my POA and her will (I'm executrix) state that i will be compensated, which means nothing to me because her estate has no value. You should look at the language about compensation in your own legal docs.
First step I would take, if not already, is schedule a home visit with your local social services to discuss the situation and what is legal and possible.