New Texas Guides Help Financial Caregivers In Managing Someone Else's Money
Texas Appleseed and AARP have launched a toolkit of five “Managing Someone Else’s Money” guides for Texas financial caregivers. The guides are based on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s national Managing Someone Else’s Money set, and are adapted to Texas law and resources. The guides include plain language information on caregiver duties, as well as tips on how to spot financial exploitation and avoid scams. The guides aim to help the state’s 3.5 million caregivers faced with making legal and financial decisions or supporting a family member or friend in doing so.
Like the national CFPB guides, the Texas toolkit includes four guides tailored to the needs of people in four different fiduciary roles:
· Agents under a power of attorney
· Court appointed guardians of the estate
· Trustees
· Government fiduciaries (Social Security representative payees and VA fiduciaries.
However, Texas has gone a step further. Because Texas is one of only two states that has legislation recognizing supported decision-making agreements, the Texas set includes a fifth guide called Help for Supporters Under a Supported Decision-Making Agreement.
The free Texas guides are at www.ProtectTheirMoneyTX.org and can be downloaded without charge.
The National CFPB Guides which were developed by the ABA Commission on Law and Aging are available for free at https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/managing-someone-elses-money/.
Judicial Training Guide on Representative Payee Program
The Social Security Administration has a program that appoints representative payees to manage federal Social Security benefits for individuals determined unable to do so. Some representative payees are also court appointed guardians or conservators. It is important that judges and court staff understand the SSA representative payee program.
The Social Security Administration has released Social Security Representative Payees: Judicial Training Guide. The Guide is a set of slides specifically tailored to help judges and court staff better understand the program.
The guide includes: an overview; a comparison of guardianship and representative payee systems; information on representative payee duties; rules on when SSA benefits can be used for guardian fees; and best practices for courts to coordinate with SSA.
The new Judicial Training Guide can be found at: https://www.ssa.gov/payee/rp_training2.html To find it, look under “WINGS” Training – the Guide is an excellent resource for state WINGS, or Working Interdisciplinary Networks of Guardianship Stakeholders.
The Fundamentals of Guardianship: What Every Guardian Should Know
This book will appeal to all who have been appointed as guardian or conservator, whether lawyer, family member, friend, volunteer, or public or private entity, as well as all those who serve vulnerable adults.
By the National Guardianship Association
To order go to: https://shop.americanbar.org/ebus/Store/ProductDetails.aspx?productId=255390716
NALC 2016 "Core Essentials of Elder Law Series"
Video content now available for viewing. Recording and editing made possible by the United States Department of Justice – Elder Justice Initiatives
Recorded at the 2016 National Aging and Law Conference's "Core Essentials of Elder Law Series."
· Basics of Social Security and SSI
· Medicaid 101 for Aging Advocates
· Representative Payee Programs
· Strengthening State Civil Laws on Elder Abuse
· ABCs of Medicare Parts A, B, C and D
· Understanding and Assessing Legal Capacity
· Three’s a Crowd: Ethical Issues in Representing Clients with Legal Representatives
Sorry, no CLE credit is available for these recordings.