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How difficult and expensive is it to file for guardianship of a senior who has no spouse, is 90 with vascular dementia in palliative care

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I recently obtained guardianship/conservatorship (they are 2 separate things in my state) for my 92 year old dad. The initial part of the process was a bit time consuming and there will be a court visitation involved. You will also need to be bondable where you will pay an annual fee. He was served served with papers. After the papers were filed, then we waited and waited. Our court date was scheduled for July because my dad contested. Neither attorney wanted him to go to court, as he is very frail. My concern was that he has the capability of 'turning it on' when he needs to and that guardianship wouldn't be awarded if we had gone to court. The attorney's, dad, and myself worked it out of court. It took over 4 months for the award and another month for them to get the certified papers to us (I couldn't start doing anything with regard to a conservatorship account until I had the papers and we lost a month in the process because of waiting). Now I'm super busy putting an inventory of his assets together (which he fought) and figuring out restricted accounts (he has a lot of assets). We're going to increase my bond. We're allowing him to keep a checking account as he wants to continue to pay a few bills of his own (I already write the checks, he still signs them). He also lives on his own with the help of daily care and needs money available for paying for things like furnace repair, etc. The attorney knows at some point this will change but it works for now. I have opened a conservatorship account but waiting for checks to come in the mail so I can move some bills to me. (can't pay online in my state - confirmed with both the attorney and the bank). We have to change some banking stuff around because of the restricted accounts and I need to wrestle control of the incoming money away from him (which he should not be doing). I'm going to have to change addresses and have things forwarded to me which is going to greatly upset him. Dreading the next phase of this process. Then there's the annual report. I will have to put this together from back to August 23rd when conservatorship was awarded. That will be a project for the future. Have yet to receive a bill from my attorney as he still needs to apply to the court for charges. And my dad is waiting for a bill too. His attorney has already applied to the court ($3,000). If he hadn't fought this, it would have been less money. It's been a ride!
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Do you have POA. If so, you can use Gma's money to obtain guardianship. Its expensive. You also need to prove Gma can no longer make her own decisions. You will go to court before a Judge and he will determine if guardianship is needed. You will need a lawyer for the process. Once you r a guardian u will need to keep very good records. You will be watched closely with how Gma's money is spent.
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