Home Health Care: Home health care agencies can assist people with activities of daily living, like dressing, bathing, cooking, and cleaning.An attorney can assist in setting up a special needs trust.

Special Needs Trust: This is a type of trust that holds money for the benefit of a person with a disability to help maintain eligibility of needs-based public benefits.Bank Accounts: Joint bank accounts that require both signatures for withdrawals or that have automatic payment options can be set up to manage money.Examples are Social Security income, supplemental security income, and veteran’s benefits. Representative Payee: Individuals entitled to receive certain state or federal benefits, who are determined to be unable to manage these benefits, may be assigned an individual or agency payee to receive and manage these funds for their benefit.Advance directives may be filed with the North Carolina Secretary of State and information for this registry is available here. Advance directive forms are available through the N.C. Advance Directive for Natural Death (“Living Will”) and Advance Directive for Mental Health Treatment: Advance directives are legal documents that give instruction on what medical treatment a person would want or not want.Statutory short forms for powers of attorney are available here and here. An attorney can help prepare these documents. Durable Power of Attorney and Health Care Power of Attorney: An adult who is able to understand what he or she is signing at the time may be able to execute these documents, giving another person the authority to handle financial, medical, or other matters for him or her in the future.You can read more about these alternatives here. North Carolina law favors less restrictive alternatives to guardianship if possible.

Guardianship should only be considered when no other alternative is appropriate. It is important to weigh all alternatives to guardianship prior to filing a petition with the court. The court could appoint a non-family member as a guardian.

In guardianship, the court (clerk of superior court) decides who will be responsible for managing a person’s affairs and/or property. Under a power of attorney, an individual decides who will assist him or her with important decisions and the management of his or her own affairs and delegates that authority in a written document(s) without a court proceeding. Is guardianship the same as power of attorney? The guardian must protect the ward’s right to make his or her own choices. The guardian is required to preserve the opportunity for the ward to exercise the rights that are within his or her comprehension and judgment, allowing for the same possibility of error as a person who is not incompetent. The guardian must allow the ward to participate as much as possible in the decisions affecting him or her. What is the role of a guardian?Ī guardian is a surrogate decision maker and advocate for an individual (the ward) who has been adjudicated incompetent by the court. Additional information to help understand guardianship, including a video titled Understanding Guardianship, is available here. A court process is required to create a guardianship. Guardianship is a legal relationship in which a person(s) or agency (the guardian) is appointed by the court to make decisions and act on behalf of a person who does not have adequate capacity to make such decisions involving the management of personal affairs, property, or both.

Where do i get guardianship papers