My FIL is not able to make safe decisions yet since the POA is not activated he is the one who decides what he wants no matter what. He thinks he can do everything and yet he didn’t remember that we had a meeting with the ARDC. He was approved for long term family care through Medicaid. If he does what he wants we will be back at not eating anything not taking his medication. Anyway I just need to know what to do to activate POA, what is the process?
Read your FIL's POA document carefully to see what activities the POA can and cannot do and to see what actions need to be taken to activate the POA legally. If you have any questions, then contact the lawyer who wrote up the POA document. Each state has their own POA laws, regulations, and requirements, so you need to follow those also.
1. You need one doctor to declare the individual incapacitated to trigger the POA.
2. You need two doctor's to declare the individual incapacitated to trigger the POA - most common.
3. The document will say the POA is immediate upon signing.
I see in see in some of the previous posts that others have said they just showed the document and had no problems. This can happen but legally if the the POA has not been triggered they should not be doing this!
I learned on this site to put copy of POA on a zip drive -- which has helped at hospitals, dr, offices, etc. Banks will require the original notarized POA.
The last part -- "when can a POA be undone": My parent's included a clause such that should they have restored "capacity" (they get their mind back, recover from stroke, etc.) such that a doctor would deem them "okay and competent" - then the POA is inactivated until such time as parent/person becomes incapacitated, 2 dr sign offs, etc.
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