Personal Financial Services provides professional Guardianship Services over the person and/or their estate. A Legal Guardian is responsible for the health and wellbeing of a person and is often responsible for their financial affairs. A Guardian is appointed when a person is not able to safely or appropriately handle their own affairs.
How Personal Financial Services becomes a Guardian
To become a Guardian for an adult, you need to have medical documentation to support the fact that the person in question is unable to safely be responsible for their own health and well being. Often this is a result of a lifelong disability, dementia, Alzheimer’s or other mental and/or health condition.
After you secure the appropriate medical documentation, paperwork has to be filed with the Court in the County where the incapacitated person resides. A hearing will then be scheduled. If the appropriate legal qualifications are met, the Court will appoint a Legal Guardian.
The Legal Guardian has a duty to report all the assets to the Court, ask the Court for permission before selling any major assets and provide a regular accounting to the Court on what is happening in the Guardianship. A regular report regarding the condition of the incapacitated adult must also be filed.
We are frequently appointed as Guardian when the person does not have any family or does not have family close by. We are also appointed as Guardian in difficult situations where the family prefers to remain family. In our position we make the difficult decisions that can sometimes cause disagreements in families. This allows family members to remain dignified and in good standing.
Often when we enter into a Guardianship, we are stepping into a lot of unknowns. People have an amazing ability to learn to cope with their decline. In many circumstances the issues we uncover are much worse than anticipated regarding their ability to keep up with their financial and personal affairs.
With backgrounds in banking, tax preparation and legal assistance, we have a unique set of qualifications to handle even the most daunting tasks. We have extensive experience piecing together financial situations with limited information. We have developed multiple professional relationships with other service providers to assist in caring for your loved one and their affairs.
When Personal Financial Services serves as Guardian, we strive to keep the communication lines open between ourselves, family members and care providers in order to reach the ultimate goal of safely and appropriately caring for your loved one.
Personal Financial Services offers free consultations in order to answer all of your questions on what services we can provide for you or your loved one. However, we are not Attorney’s and encourage you to seek counsel with an Attorney in regards to any legal questions you may have on drafting documents and administering a Guardianship.