Any POAs switch their LO's homeowner's insurance?

So.. yes you can open an insurance account as POA. For example I used my POA to insure my mom's house. I had to be careful both to use proper POA language when signing and to designate the trust the house is in as the owner of the home AND the owner of the policy. My understanding of a reverse mortgage is you are basically selling the house to the RM company, and they pay you for it in installments while you still live there. You want to make good and sure you know who the legal owner of the house is before you take out an insurance policy.

Regarding the car. No you cannot register a car most places without a valid driver license. When my mom finally stopped renewing her license (after years of being physically incapable of even driving, but that's auto renewal for you) she could no longer insure the car in her own name. She asked if I could register it in my name but my answer was absolutely not so it sat in her garage unregistered until I sold it.

I would personally not be messing with the homeowner's insurance policy just to save a couple bucks on auto insurance. Register and insure the car in your name and call it a day.

imo this likely is WAAaaaaY bigger problems than finding insurance.

So you live w/mom in a house in her name, right?
AND
Your plan is to continue living there now & after mom dies, right?
HOWEVER!
She has that home in a RM/Reverse Mortgage, right?
If this is the scenario, please pls pls realize, house being in an RM really limits what can and cannot be done.

Due to the RM, mom cannot just change title/ownership from her to you. RM terms do not allow for her to do that as that RM is loan that has to be repaid b4 any title/ownership change is done. RM has a securitized interest in the property. Do this and that RM company will call in the loan / do foreclose on that house in a hot second once they find out. And they will…. could take weeks or months, but RMs, like insurers, have systems (LexisNexis) to ferret out changes done.

OP- Please pls pls read up and in detail what her RM Terms are and what absolutely has to happen with that home after mom dies (or moves out & into a facility) to satisfy that RM she did. If it’s a HECM backed RM (most are), my understanding is, it allows for her, or family or heirs to buy out the RM + interest + fees usually at 90% appraised value or loan balance (if less). Will be a limited period of time to do this. I think it’s 60 days to notify the RM of intent and then maybe 60 additional days to come up with $ in full. Otherwise RM will do filing (usually foreclosure) to have house be turned over to them as per the terms of the RM contract your mom did. You are not a spouse so you have zero protections under RM to continue living in that home once she does (or once she moves out after a 1 yr period).

You will have to satisfy the loan mom did to settle the RM in order to keep the house. Do you have the $? It will likely have to a cash sale.

You cannot just move the house from being in mom’s name to yours, because that RM exists as lending so until it’s paid, no clear title.

Did you provide the atty with the RM contract and a pay off letter from the RM? Estate planning really needs to know exactly what the assets are and if they are encumbered. That RM is a loan that has to be repaid. It’s encumbered. It can’t be a full on asset till that happens.

On the house insurance, some companies don’t want underwriting on homes with a RM. The RM has to be listed on the face page of the policy as the “mortgagee” or payee. So claims payment will have both your mom’s name and RM name on the check. RMs can be real hard ball on this and use entire check as payment towards the loan. So what happens is the house doesn’t get repaired, etc and that insurance company now has a POS unrepaired property they are insuring. RM - like other mortgage lenders- often can do force-placed insurance and have speciality HO carriers they work with. If you have problems finding one to replace what moms currently has, ask RM on this.

fwiw it’s REALLY important that the house has coverage that is seamless with no gaps of being uninsured. It’s hard and expensive to get a policy when this happens. There are those on this forum who have had this, it’s beyond challenging.

Prop insurance is a requirement by the RM for the homeowner to do and pay for. Same thing for property taxes. If not, RM CAN CALL IN THE LOAN.
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If car is her name, I bet Mom still can get car insurance. Likely will have to do is have you listed as a secondary driver on the policy. Both her ID and your DL show same address and it’s where the car is “garaged”. The premium will reflect this.

Imo and not an atty opinion, You as her POA really should not sign over her car to you. It looks like self-dealing which is a no-no for the fiduciary responsibility that a POA should be. If she should end up filing for LTC Medicaid within next 5 years, that transfer will be viewed as gifting, so causes an issue for her eligibility. How serious of an issue depends on value of car and how your State does their eligibility process.

Home insurance goes up drastically when a house is not occupied.

The car, you can't insure a car in your name if you don't have title to it. Your best bet may be to buy it. It has to be bought at market value because of Medicaid. Ask your lawyer about it.

It appears that you're providing care to your mom, you don't have another job, you're living with her, and you're the only person using her car. In situations such as this, it's especially important to keep good records and ensure that expenditures you're making with mom's funds are in mom's best interests.

I do not see why the auto insurance has to change.
The OWNER is insuring the vehicle and is also listing drivers on the policy.
I know of a BLIND person that OWNED a car but had a driver. I am sure the driver was not the registered owner.

If the LO is not your spouse, if you put the house in your name there may be tax exposure for you and possible Medicaid implications for your LO.

I am currently POA for my parents. They moved out of their home in September and moved into a independent apartment. To make sure everything was covered correctly I called the insurance company and got different answers from every person I spoke with. We finally settled on it being insured as a "rental" for now. No one lives there. I live next door and am regularly in the home checking on things, sorting things, etc. My siblings stay there when they come to visit from out of state. We have until August to occupy it. If my mom moves home (when my dad needs assistive or memory care) we can revert to owner occupied insurance. I don't know about the "bundling" of insurance and what that looks like. My parent's home insurance increased dramatically when they moved out and we had to make the switch. I was hoping it would drop because the personal liability would diminish but the fact that a water leak or fire could happen and no one catch it in time to prevent damage caused the increase. I would not put their home or their car in my name. I just see all kinds of IRS flags and family issues with that.

Does the person still live in their own home? Why keep the car if person can't drive it?

When my Mom lived in her home, I just paid the bill. When the house is empty, that is when the insurance company will raise the rent. We sold Moms car once she could no longer drive.

You can't put a house in your name as POA or the car. You can sell them as POA. Then the money needs to be put in an account and only used on the person your POA for.

That doesn't sound right ravensdotti 🤔