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I’m Trustee and POA of mom’s Trust. I heard that I also need to be Social Security Representative Payee. Is this true?

I am my Mother’s POA. Social Security does NOT acknowledge POA’s. They want you to become her payee rep. I declined because of the lengthy paperwork of submitted all her receipts of bills and purchases. I already spend hours on straightening out medical bills, overcharges by her nursing facility, taxes. Dental, documentation of the $$ I spend on her supplies and care, and the many other things I help her with. Social security also told me I would have to leave her funds with her nursing facility after her death if I became her payee rep but I question that to this day. Hope this helps.
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Reply to MAF077
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AlvaDeer Feb 19, 2025
If her SS comes directly into a Trust or her bank account on which you are signee as POA there is no need for you to do anything. I was Trustee and POA for my brother. His SS came directly into his trust account. There was no need to do a thing. I simply paid the bills. He was always private pay, never on government Medicaid. No problems managing is accounts with my very good POA documents.
You are correct that neither the IRS or SS recognizes any POA no matter how well drawn it is.
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I believe it is recommended if your loved one has a disability or legal incapacity which means they can't manage their own benefits.  
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Reply to MOM4MOM
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I never found the need. I was on Moms bank acct so I could pay her bills. Actually, there is yearly paperwork as a payee. You ha ve to show where the money went. Another reason I never did it.
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Reply to JoAnn29
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The easiest way is to have your mom request that you be her payee rep. You don't have to take her in person, you can set up a phone appointment.
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Reply to OncehatedDIL
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Reply to MG8522
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Can you bring her to the SS office? An alternative is to go online with mom at your side to set up her account. Having my mom sit with me was just as good as in person. She will need a secondary security layer such as a phone # for text or email account. Many spouses share the same emails and phones in a household but you can set up an email account such as Google.com in her name if you wish. This will keep her emails very limited and not buried in with your own. ( I actually used my devices because I would receive a six digit security number) The online account had plenty of information such as my taxpayer history and what my monthly SS payments would be. Within that website is the link to representative payee. I put a primary and secondary name on mine. For my mom, the rep payee was me. I also had legal guardianship at that time. I get emails to review my account annually for changes. Since we were both on SS. Our reminders came at the same time.
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Reply to MACinCT
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Yes it is true if you ever need to talk to social security on behalf of your mom or need to make any changes to her account.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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If her SS goes into her trust account, that is the best of all worlds. This was the case for my brother. I went to SS and was told I could get all the letters from the MD and so on, but given my brother made me Trustee of his accounts in Trust and POA for all other means, and his SS went directly into the Trust account, I had no need to be Rep Payee.
Now if you CHOOSE to do that know that you will need at least two MD examining to say that the person is not legally competent to handle his own SS. And you will have hoops to jump in terms of what they request in yearly accounting of all monies into and out of SS account.

I would say hold off on this as long as you have no problems with banks and have a really GOOD solid well done and attorney done POA and Trustee papers.
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