She needs funds for nursing home. My father-in-law died in September 2015 WITHOUT a will. There was very little money in the estate until his business was sold last month. The courts are moving very slowly to get the estate probated. My husband and I have been paying for her nursing home out of our own pocket, but we are rapidly running out of money. We have enough left for one, possibly two months at which time she will have to leave the nursing home. We are unable to care for her in our home due to her physical problems (incontinent, unable to walk/dress herself, etc) and because both of us work. Is there a program to provide temporary (until the estate is settled and the money from the sale of the company can be accessed) financial assistance?
Usually for probate, you need a valid will to get letters testamentary issued and executor named and agent named.
So just what path is being done....lineal heirship....court appointed administration or just what?
If there could be all sorts of drama within his business & estate, I'd suggest you not wait for probate or whatever legal is happening to get wrapped up before you do something to get moms care paid for.
MIL could apply for medicaids LTC NH program. Medicaid will require into on her current & existing income & asset situation, the "what ifs" on the estate do not factor in till that actually happens and assets dispersed by the court. Probate could take years, so you have to come up with a different approach than waiting on probate as $$ is running out. Mil gets SS and maybe a retirement and more than likely will be within Medicaids "at need" income financial limits. If her current NH accepts residents as "Medicaid Pending" this will be pretty straightforward to apply for medicaid for her and she stays put. Speak with admissions and social worker at the NH. If this NH does not take medicaid ask which ones do that other residents have moved to. Folks run out of $ all the time & a better NH has info on other places for lateral moves. Hopefully they work with you in all this. Otherwise you just have to start calling around to find an open bed at a facility that takes Medicaid pending residents. Try to get on this ASAP this week as you need to gather together the documents needed for the application - like her awards letters from SS & her retirement, last few months of banking statements, her life insurance policies, etc. Again this is about mil current situation not what COULD happen in later. if Medicaid caseworker starts pressing on mil assets details (she probably has no assets as whatever there was went away when he died or is FIL assets & tied up in court), then you need to get an elder law atty to get this worked out.
About the $ you have fronted for her care, I'm not sure how complex this will be for you to be reinbursed from the estate of the deceased. It's not a claim against your FIL or his business or his owned property which have a system to enter to the agent or court to be included in the claims against the estate. I'd be concerned that funds paid on MIL care aren't a claim on his estate, that whomever is in charge will view it that you chose to do & pay this rather than turn her over to become a ward of the state with its ability for the court appointed guardian to force the court or state to cover MILs costs of care. Yeah not good....If there is a contentious situation looming over the settlement of FIL estate, this could get quite quite ugly. You may need for mil to get her own atty to get her a place at the settlement on FILs estate. Your at the 6 mo mark post death, there should have been some appraisals done, taxes filed, debts received, etc. If MiL is being left out on any updates or atty isn't being forthcoming to MIL or your hubs, I'd get an atty.
I don't know if all courts do this but see if you can get the docket print out from the court on all actions to date on the estate. Docket will detail the date & time of all filings with items filed as an attachment. I'd go to the courthouse and chat with the staff to get this emailed to you. 9:30/10 AM is a good time as court is in session so office staff isnt quite as busy. Take small bills cash cause if you have to pay for any documents courts usually arent set up for CC or checks. Take moms info like a copy of her drivers license or ID and wedding license or something to show she is the widow. Dont go into drama & be nice. Probate is usually all open-court so all documents available to the public. Btw I'm admist year 1 as independent executor for my moms estate, it just takes t....i...m....e.
In a small town, it's more likely that someone appointed is someone the judge knows, so you might have to ride this guy's tail to get him moving.
If you get any letters from the Probate Court on issues that haven't been addressed, you can file a petition to have the rep removed, but don't take the blame if he's not doing anything and the Court contacts you.
But we all have just so much time & humor and right now it needs to on getting her onto Medicaid first & foremost and probate second IMHO.
Good news about Medicaid. Get started on it now so that next month / May mil can be medicaid pending. There should be a list of documents that medicaid needs fir MILs application. Could be easy to pull together or could have glitches as some items (like insurance) coukd be somewhere unknown.....so you have to as DPOA or MIl requests copies of documents. The admissions /billing gal at the NH she needs to be your new BFF and make sure you ask clear ?'s. ask how the AL NH do Medicaid applications....for my mom in TX and MIL (LA & later TX) thier NH gave a list of items needed for Medicaid application which in turn they reviewed to determine if "medicaid pending" was ok and then they sent the application, document stack and thier NH bill to the state. Contact with caseworker happened after that directly with DPOA only after that point. & the caseworker was one who was assigned for that NH by zip code area. About the document list, MILs awards letters are paramount. These are the trifold mailing that SSA and retirements mail in nov/dec which state payments for the next year. Why these are important is it tells the NH what MILs copay or SOC (share of cost) will be. Like for my mom she got $ 1800 a mo so her SOC was $ 1740 (TX has a $60 personal needs allowance which they can keep); NH was positively giddy with excitement as this is a high cotton income for one on Medicaid. NH has to be paid the SOC during the pending period, so the higher the income the better the NH is financially.
You know there are lots of posts in the Medicare & Medicaid section that have oodles of insight in the whole process that would be good for you to read.
About the NH bill to date, you & hubs have been paying it 100%? Or has mil paid some as she paid her SS to the NH and you all paid the difference? If mil has over 2k at the end of the month in her bank account, it will be over the Medicaid eligibility limit for May, So find out ASAP as you may have to do a spend down ASAP to get her to end April under 2K.
Keep in mind, I know nothing, guess now I don't want to know anymore.