Hi
@Hilliary I am POA for my dad (& previously my mom) in Oklahoma. Your location doesn’t matter for enforcing this.
I’d advise to register the POA
now (!!) with every institution you can, including Medicare/social security. It takes time (up to 6 months in some cases) to give approval. Unfortunately most institutions and companies have different forms and procedures. One of my mom’s CC companies requested my full financial and residential history (difficult as I don’t actually live in the US…) to grant POA. Then the next time I rang the rep mistook me for my 85 year old mom (I let that slide) and gave me the info needed. I ended up getting an additional card on one of my dad’s credit card accounts to give me full legal access (recommended by the kind customer service rep) but that won’t work if your aunt won’t let you help.
you also need to look at the POA and see if there is a medical trigger clause (fairly standard in off the shelf POAs), then you will need a note from the appropriate medical person (what‘s accepted again differs from company to company) to allow you to act as POA. We had removed this (perfectly legal) for my mom and dad after not being able to invoke the POA when my brother became unresponsive because it was during the holidays and there were no doctors around to sign it. It can also be difficult with dementia to get a doctor to sign off on this due to the shifting levels of cognisance.
If your aunt banks with a local bank, they may be more supportive to work with you “around the edges” to help you get some things done.
Register your aunts phone number(s) with the do not call list
https://www.donotcall.gov/ and check with her land line provider to see if the have a robocall blocking service (Cox does in many places). The unsolicited calls are a HUGE source of CC fraud in the US and the callers can be very aggressive. I also have contacted companies that my dad has bought things from and asked that they remove him from their mailing and call lists (they are legally required to do this if you ask). One very understanding company (where I was returning an unopened package) was also able to place him on a “do not do business with” list after I explained the dementia situation. It’s means that even if he does call in (seeing an ad for example) to place an order, it gets blocked after the order is taken (so he doesn’t know about it). So always worth while explaining the situation nicely to try for a solution.
Your (or her) local Alzheimer’s Association should also be able to gives some advice.
