My daughter graduated and moved out of his house where she was house sitting. Dad lives with me 225 miles away. He is 93, declining rapidly. House is in trust and I am co-trustee. Sister Julie is POA. Dad struggles to make a legible signature. Does every signature need to be notarized? If he can’t sign or make a decision when the time comes do we need a diagnosis from dr to proceed as co-trustee? He will need the use of his funds from the sale of the house for his care.
Jcondliffe, your dad doesn't need to be able to write legibly if he's physically not able to. When my sister executed end of life documents, my attorney came to the hospital, I presented ID, and the attorney witnessed and notarized my sister's "signature."
In another situation, one of the attorneys I worked for took a notary with her to visit a dying client, and the documents were executed at the client's home, the day before she died.
You might want to run this past a Lawyer, as we are talking POAs and Trusts and Co-trustee and so on. If this is the sale of a home it is worth the hour paid to a lawyer to be certain you are not making a mistake.
I hope others will chime in. There are some really knowledgeable people on the Forum. But it is just my belief in big stuff like this, like taxes and etc that it is much better to be safe than sorry.
My folks did this when my dad became terminally ill. Mom has dementia but was still able to understand enough to resign. It was an enormous help, and I took over everything three weeks before Dad died.
You only can do this if Dad's competent enough to understand. My folks' attorney made sure he was comfortable that I wasn't trying to steal their money, and fortunately, my dad was fully cognizant and able to communicate that to the attorney while I stayed out of the room.