I'm 70 & live in Tennessee; my mentally incapacitated brother is in his early 70's & has been living in an ALF in Texas for several years now due to not being able to live alone nor manage his own affairs anymore. He was rescued by a good friend about 8 years ago from living alone in deplorable hoarding/neglected living conditions & suffering from declining mental & physical health; she (the friend) really helped get him life-saving help when he needed it most & asked if I would consider giving her PofA over his care & affairs. I was very glad (and even more relieved, actually) to sign PofA over to her. She took care of getting him stabilized with vital medical care & then finding him a good ALF as well as visiting him regularly, taking him shopping for necessities, clothes, etc. & making sure he was being well-cared for. Unfortunately, around August of this year, she was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic lung & brain cancer & declined rapidly, recently passing away in mid-October. Apparently, no provision was made for contingency PofA; the caregiver's adult daughter was left with taking care of trying to handle her mother's affairs & sort out everything she was left to do, plus live her own very busy life. She & one of her aunts trying to help handle their deceased relative's affairs have texted me a few times, stating they don't have time to deal with the added responsibility of my brother (understandable) but also not being subtle about pressuring me (or someone else in our family) to take over PofA for him. Long story shorter, the only immediate family my brother has left is myself & our younger sister (who is 63 years old). Neither I nor our younger sister are able or in any position to take over PofA, conservatorship or guardianship responsibilities for our brother, though we wish we could & also do more for him. We each live over 700 miles away, in different states, & are tasked with full-time responsibilities dealing with retired/disabled spouses; my sister still has to work full time to help make ends meet & I've found myself having to adjust to being forced into retirement & onto Social Security/Medicare from a job I had for the past 20 years ("company restructuring/reorganizing/consolidating positions", etc.) My income from Social Security is now roughly a third of what it was (not including all the overtime I worked whenever possible); losing a lot of formerly company-subsidized benefits & adjusting to a new "normal" with substantially less funds available being quite the challenge, as well as dealing with my retired/disabled spouse who has several chronic debilitating health conditions with more cropping up recently & is needing more & more supervision/assistance than ever.I've tried asking the former caregiver's daughter about what's being done as far as my brother's care, financial provision, etc. but get no answers, just random copies of various documents & pressure to assume PofA. I was recently informed by my brother's ALF that his account is in arrears due to not being paid for the past few months; a 30-day notice was filed in November & it's now December (about $7,000 due with more accruing). Social Security sent out a letter stating his income has been suspended due to needing a new payee to handle his money, etc. & his Medicaid needs converted from community to long-term care, etc. It seems to me the only viable option left is guardianship; will that at least help get this whole convoluted/complicated mess resolved? It certainly needs to be addressed ASAP & with no extra funds for extra expenses like costly lawyers, etc., any & all help, information & advice is welcomed & sorely needed at this point; thanks in advance!!!
I agree with Alva, APS needs to be called in and the State becomes his guardian. Who was paying for his ALF? They are usually private pay unless you can get a Medicaid waver.
Also inform the executor of this woman's estate that they have now, as part of her estate, to report her death to all those she was on record for as the POA. Ask them to call APS to figure out how to turn these records over to the state court.
Then YOU make that call to APS. At that point you will have three calls into APS. Hopefully one of them will work. Meanwhile, do understand that the ALF cannot put your brother out into the streets.
You are in no place and in no condition to attempt to take on guardianship, even TEMPORARILY. Do know that if you accept guardianship you cannot simply resign it as it is a court action to do so and judges typically do not allow resignation of guardians, often even in extremities of health problems.
Do NOT attempt to become guardian or PoA yourself. This is not your problem to solve.