Wondering if anyone has kept track to a point of hours worked such as taking care of parent's house, bills, showings, travel, oh the many responsibilities we have.
Is there a special form?? What would a hourly wage be or milage? Don’t get me wrong I love my dad to the moon. I have taken many days off to take care of to many things to list hours of Phone and emails and travel. The JUDGE brought it to my attention as a way to Spend DOWN his Money. I’m paying cash for his nursing home and many other things until he qualifies for Medicaid. Please don’t judge if my dad were in his rightful mind believe me he would rather I get Money for my hard endless hours of work so that is why I am asking. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful caring advice
How did you get the guardianship done?
If you had an atty, they usuaLly put together a packet for you and perhaps shepherd you thru the first filing to the court. If you needed to do a guardianship services agreement as part of your guardianship, the atty should do that agreement and it gets submitted to probate court for the judge to sign off on. The agreement would state what the mileage reimbursement is (easiest is to set at the years federal rate) and then an hourly rate for “oversight” as per the services agreement; OR perhaps you do “MIE” (mileage and incidental expenses) if you live out of town and come in every so often to deal with stuff. MIE is set at federal rate based on location (it’s often used by Executors for smaller estates that do not have the $ to pay % of estate assets). If you had an atty, you likely paid a good amount for their services so they should help you figure this out as part of their fee. The majority of documents to probate (that’s where guardianships are done in my experience) initially all get filed via an online portal to probate court that the atty have access to as it’s done by their State bar #. Then later on you can DiY the future filings at the courthouse.
There should be a defined form that you have to submit to the court within a fixed timeframe as to the disposition of his funds spent on him by yourself as guardian. Maybe every 6 months. It will have the PC case # and a submission page for judges signature. The forms have kinda specific format though, so that’s why at least initially the atty does the first one or two. Then you use it as your template for future filings.
if you didn’t have an attorney do the guardianship, but were awarded guardianship via an APS action, I’d call the court and ask to schedule an “in chambers meeting”. It could have to be done via Zoom or Microsoft Teams bc of Covid concerns. If your in a relatively organized county, there will be some sort of full time or part time staff that deals with things for the judge and it’s done via an in chambers. Some PC have a guardianships DIY videos or packets for you to learn from and use. The courthouse staff I've always found are super knowledgeable and helpful.
But you need to do something that legit & filed so that you do not run into any potential “gifting” issue for when you eventually file for LTC Medicaid for your dad. Good luck.
I'd be very careful if you will need Medicaid in the near future. Being paid without a contract in place may be looked upon as gifting by Medicaid. I would think that the cost of private paying for the NH will use up his money fast enough. You need to make sure this lawyer is well versed in Medicaid.