I have POA for my Mom and she lives with me. My brother has suggested we invest some of her savings rather than have it just sit. Mom has dementia and is in relatively good health but between her Pension, Social Security and savings if she had to go into a nursing home or needed full-time care her monthly income would not be enough and her savings would be gone quickly.
I'm going to go out on a limb but I'd bet that you are caregiving for free for mom & absorbing her costs of living with you into your household budget AND you have actually look at the costs of care in a facility and know that 50k, 100k, 250k can easily pffft!, be gone & spent in a year or two. That you are worried about the day that moms care increases to the level that you just cant provide what you know she eventually needs. Brother doesn't see the care needs as he's not there doing the day to day with mom. Is this more the situation??? HoneyJean, if it is, brother needs a reality check.
My take on the mice maze that is dealing with caregiving, aging parents, Medicare & Medicaid, is that if they live long enough, the caregiver will run out of steam/ability/their own health, the elder will move into a tacility & run out of $$ -unless they are generationally wealthy - and you will end up applying for Medicaid for them to pay for their NH stay. They will need to cash in & spend down to get Medicaid eligible. All that late in life financial planning must work for the spend down which basically means its no risk & easily liquid &/or Medicaid compliant. It's not a DIY project, you need a good elder law atty - personally if there real $ out there (over 300k) I'd suggest you see a NAELA certified elder law atty. Good luck!