My father had multiple strokes and cannot communicate or care for himself. Before this he made my Mother primary medical power of attorney and my brother secondary medical power of attorney. He made my Brother sole legal power of attorney. He is in a long term care facility in Arizona where my brother and sister live and my brother needs help with things such as dealing with insurance companies and paying bills that he just doesn't have adequate time to do all on his own. He wishes to make my sister co-legal power of attorney but thinks my father would have to sign a new POA. Since my father is unable to communicate he obviously cannot do this. Is there any way my brother can get this done with maybe medical documentation stating my fathers medical status and inability to act on his own behalf? My brother really needs the help, it's just too much for one person to handle. Also my Mother lives in Ohio and isn't really involved in his care or decisions being made. She verbally agreed to let my brother make decisions.
That doesn't mean your sister can't do a lot of the secretarial legwork for him (if she feels so inclined - it's extremely nice of her to offer). He should, I think, be able to give insurance companies, banks and so on authorisation to discuss your father's affairs with her; but she can't sign off on anything.
To be honest, just how time-consuming can one individual's administrative burden be? I'm assuming that your Dad isn't Bill Gates or somebody, or he'd have an army of professionals doing all this for him. If there is a lot of stuff that needs sorting out up front, such as insurance claims, he should take a week's leave to break the back of it, and set up systems for bill paying so that matters pretty much take care of themselves thereafter. And if he really can't manage even that, or something like it, then the question is why he accepted POA in the first place - not, I admit, that that helps.
The administrative burden can be just that. I am an only child taking care of my mother's affairs. At first it was not overly onerous, but once we began the process of getting her into a nursing home and applying for Medicaid, it became near to a fulltime job. Over the past year or so, I have logged in over 1,000 hours, writing letters, contacting banks, brokers, insurance companies. lawyers. I have a folder of over 100 emails I have sent to attorneys. I would have been very appreciative of someone to help. Thank God for my wonderful wife who has supported me throughout this ordeal.
1. That's about 3 hours a day. Not nothing, of course, but not what you'd call unfindable.
2. Once you're done, you're done.
3. It sounds as if things got complicated.
4. Gosh, I hope they weren't YOUR attorneys - 100 emails x $ how much for reading them??? (or what they're pleased to call reading them. In my experience, "reading" is a loosely applied term. "Logging for the purpose of billing for 'perusing'" is often more like it.)
5. Good for you, seizing the opportunity to thank and appreciate your wife :)