You may have a special needs child or other loved one who is developmentally disabled and/or legally incapacitated. Since his or her birth, you have been the primary caregiver. Have you thought about what would happen if you could no longer care for your special needs loved one?
You have learned how to deal with all the governmental agencies over the years as your loved has qualified for the various governmental programs. You have become pretty good at negotiating the maze of agencies and forms.
There is the annual Medicaid renewal that you have been filing with the Michigan Department of Human Services. If your loved one has a monthly Medicaid deductible, you have been responsible for the monthly medical expense reports.
As the SSI representative payee, you have been paying all the bills for your special needs loved one. But also as the SSI representative payee, there is the Representative Payee Accounting Report that you have been filing each year with the Social Security Administration.
The probate court has become familiar to you. You are the court appointed guardian with the responsibility of annual court reports.
Then there is the care team. Since you are the guardian of your special needs loved one, you are the point person for all medical and mental healthcare treatment decisions. You are the one dealing with the doctors, therapists, social workers and other healthcare providers.
You have been caring for your special needs child for the last 40 or 50 years. If you were to drop dead or become legally incapacitated tomorrow, do you have others in place to step in as your successors to take care of your special needs loved one? Do those others know what to do, where things are kept or whom to contact?
I have seen on more than one occasion, that when Mom or Dad can no longer care for a special needs child, that the rest of the family has no clue what to do. The special needs child was living with Mom or Dad and now cannot live alone. The rest of the family then is then scrambling to figure out what to do to care for the special needs loved one.
Does someone move into Mom or Dad’s home to live with and care for the special needs child? Or does the special needs child move in with one of the siblings? The doctors and other health care providers then don’t want to talk to the siblings because there is no legal basis upon which to release any information to them.
The family is so concerned about caring for the special needs loved one, that they do not even think about all the paperwork that is regularly required. Then the doctors and other healthcare providers stop treatment because Medicaid is no longer covering the special needs child. An annual Medicaid renewal or monthly deductible report was never filed. The siblings did not know they had to file them.
To keep this from happening to your special needs loved one, the first thing that you need to do is choose your successor and a back-up to care for your special needs loved one and step in for you when you are unable. Talk things over with your successors to make sure that they are on-board with the program. If you are a guardian of your special needs child, Michigan law provides for a parental appointment of a guardian.
You can appoint a successor guardian for your special needs child by will or other writing signed by you and at least two witnesses. If you and the child’s other parent are both either incapacitated or dead, the appointment becomes effective: 1) after 7 days’ notice to both the special needs child and either the child’s primary caregiver or nearest adult relative; 2) an acceptance of guardianship is filed with the probate court by your named successor guardian; and 3) no objections are filed with the probate court. No petitions need to be filed with the probate court and no hearings need to be held.
Without the parental appointment of guardian, there would have to be a guardianship petition filed with the court and proper notices given to all interested parties. There would be a guardian ad litem investigation and report. An then all this would be followed by a hearing in the probate court. for the appointment of the guardian. You can avoid this with the parental appointment of guardian.
Next, prepare a duty roster of the tasks for which you are responsible on a daily, weekly, monthly and annual basis. Include in the roster, all filings needing to be made with any governmental agencies. Make copies of the filings before submitting them and also include in the roster, where past filings can be found. Are they in the file cabinet in the basement or in the desk in the den?
Review the roster and filings with your chosen successors. They should become familiar with the job duties and forms before they are thrust into it by your death or incapacity. Maybe they can start helping out before your death or incapacity. It would be nice to have a personal assistant now, wouldn’t it?
Your successors then can have a little time to train for the job. They will know what to do and when to do it. And when the time comes for them to take over completely, it is not a crisis.
By doing just a little planning now while you are alive and well, it will make things much easier for your family and your chosen successor guardians, when you are alive and not so well or after your death. In addition, it will provide the least disruption in the life of your special needs loved one.
By: Matthew M. Wallace, CPA, JD
Published edited March 1, 2015 in The Times Herald newspaper, Port Huron, Michigan as: Protecting special needs loved ones