What can I do when my mother has Alzheimer's and no POA?

My mother has Alzheimer's and no POA. She is in a nursing home and I am working on getting her medicaid qualified but the NH says due to a Whole Life Insurance policy she can not be qualified until it is spent down. The face value is 5k and the cash value is $4326.40.

My problem is she is the owner of the policy and has no POA. She can not sign off to surrender the policy due to her Alzheimer's. I have talked to the NH and to Medicaid and no one has an answer of what I can do. I had already purchased an 8k Irrevocable Pre-Paid Funeral before I knew she had the Life Insurance policy.

I wonder if I can take the Life Insurance policy to the Funeral Home and have them attach it to her already Pre-Paid Funeral Arrangements and still get her medicaid qualified.

Comments for What can I do when my mother has Alzheimer's and no POA?

Average Rating

Click here to add your own comments

Feb 15, 2013
Rating

Pre-paid funeral/burial policy good idea
by: Gabriel Heiser

If your mother cannot surrender the policy or borrow against it (another option), then a guardian will need to be appointed to do one of those things. As a practical matter, the legal fees to get the guardian appointed may well wipe out the cash value of the policy, but at least it would solve the problem of your mother having too much money to qualify for Medicaid.

Your idea of converting the policy into a pre-paid funeral/burial policy is a good one, (i) if the insurance company will do it, and (ii) if the total amount does not exceed the maximum amount of such a policy (some states limit the total amount that can be put into such a policy).

Click here to add your own comments

Join in and write your own page! It's easy to do. How? Simply click here to return to Medicaid Questions.

--by Beth Heikkinen
Marquette, Michigan

I just want to thank you for this site. It answered my questions. I think many people that do research on the net take it for granted and when they find what they are looking for they forget "someone put time, money, etc into providing me with this information."

Thank you!

Like This Site

Visit Our Social Media Pages

Get a PDF version of this website and its sister site here.