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Mom or Dad are going into a nursing home and you may need to
make decisions for them. What do you need to know? I'm James
Kapralos, an attorney at Parker Waichman. There are a few things
that you need to know if you're faced with this type of
situation. If you're Mom and Dad want you to make a decision for
them in a nursing home, you're going to need a power of
attorney. A power of attorney gives you the ability to make
decisions for Mom or Dad. A durable power of attorney allows
you to make decisions for Mom or Dad if later they become
incompetent or unable to make decisions for themselves. The
very important documents that allow you to make these
decisions, without these documents you would not be able
to make those decisions. Also, if you don't have power of
attorney and Mom or Dad is already incompetent, you can go
to court and get what is called a "guardianship." That's a major
proceeding that allows you to make decisions for Mom or Dad.
if Mom or Dad happens to pass away, the power of
attorney or guardianship no longer becomes effective and you
need the something that's called a "letters of administration"
which you obtain through the surrogate court in New York
State. These are all very important documents that allow
you to make decisions for Mom and Dad when they're alive and
letters of administration when they pass away. If you have any
questions regarding this, call me. I can help you because we do
this type of work every single day. My name is James Kapralos;
I'm an attorney at Parker Waichman. Thank you.