Why You Need a Comprehensive Power of Attorney

A comprehensive power of attorney is an important document and is easy to mess up or not include everything it needs.

I had a lady come in, Jane, whose brother is in private pay long term care. We’ll call his brother John. John had suffered from a series of strokes and had to be in long term care.

John had money but it was tied up and he only received a monthly income from his investments. Jane had to supplement John’s $7,000 per month private pay bill out of her pocket.

Jane wanted to cash out his assets and get him qualified for Medicaid. Part of getting him qualified was gifting powers in John’s durable power of attorney. You see, when an individual has more than $2,000 then we have to shuffle money around or spend it appropriately.

Unfortunately, John’s power of attorney didn’t have the appropriate powers. It didn’t allowing for unlimited gifting to qualify for benefits. The gifting power in his power of attorney was limited to the annual limit per person.

What that means is that we can’t shuffle his money around and get him qualified for Medicaid.

The family is going to be out of a substantial amount of money because his power of attorney was incomplete.

You need more than a basic power of attorney. You need a comprehensive power of attorney.