Authority of fiduciary agent

[CLJ2010]

This website is an invaluable resource and am very appreciative that it is available, I have learned so much from reading the posts that
are germane to my family’s experiences.
Here is a new wrinkle that has us in a quandary atm. My Mom was approved for AA and has been receiving her checks at the ALF she
is currently residing. She was classified as incompetent, she is. No problem. The fiduciary agent called a couple of weeks ago and said he wanted to
do an interview....he didn’t state that he was in a hurry so I called my Sister who lives in Seattle (she will be the fiduciary)
(our Mom and I live in Southern California) and we had planned for Feb. 2nd. I called to make the appointment with the agent. He was rude and gruffly demanded that we have the meeting within the next 3 days or my Moms benefits’ would/could be stopped. Is this NOP for VA fiduciary agents? How much power do they wield and is this the normal tone of doing business with these people?
I was startled and was never but anything but polite to this guy…..My sister is going to call him and
see if she gets the same treatment. I just had to put this experience into words while it was still fresh in my mind. I just didn’t expect this level of animosity on the part of a VA official.
Thank you for letting me vent this frustration. Any enlightenment that anyone can provide is much appreciated.

[vetadmin]

We are glad that you found us and that the combined efforts have been helpful.

These agents do indeed have quite a bit of power and yes, can be rude.  There are not enough of them to go around to meet the demands of those who have to go through this process.

You do need to pretty much work on "their" timeframe, and yes they can suspend the pension.  You will have to jump through a lot of hoops to get it reinstated, so if your sister finds him to be unwilling to work with her schedule, I highly recommend she accomodate him.

I hope you have all the financials together for him to review.  As a heads up for you, no one who has a felony charge or has filed bankruptcy is a viable candidate for appointment of Fiduciary.

Please come back and let us know how things go for you. 
Good luck!

[CLJ2010]

Thank you for your input.
<<I hope you have all the financials together for him to review.>>

Yes we have everything he asked for during my first phone convo. with him.
My Sis is going to be the fud. because my credit score is not as good as hers and she is already a sig. on my Moms bank acc. I"m not. I have
been depositing benefits ck for Mom and Sis has been writing the ck 's to the ALF out of Mom's bank acc.

All he had to do was tell me in the first phone convo. that he was in a hurry....he said nothing about time ! I expected normal VA time, which
we all know is 30 days for everything (at least). Sis will be here for a Thursday meeting

I have been paying the pharmacey
for delivery of meds and diapers out of pocket. I have saved all of those receipts for the agent to see. I sure hope he accepts my Moms passport
for a photo ID, it expired June of 1999. I cant imagine taking the poor lady into the CA DMV to apply for a photo ID. Her dementia is getting to be quite a challenge ! The folks at her ALF are a God send! I will let you know how the meeting goes.

[CLJ2010]

Well, we had our meeting with the "agent" and I will save my opinion of him for another forum, the one that discusses gov workers as a whole. 

My sister had been paying the ALF from the time my Mom was placed there back in April 2010. The benefit ck's started coming in September 2010 so

Sis expected to receive the back pay from April to Sept. that she was out of pocket for and I for the smaller amounts I paid for monthly diapers, hair salon, shoes, clothes
and the few meds Mom uses. However today, my Sis explains to me that the "agent" says she (Sis)will not be able to use the $6500.00 and that it has to stay in Moms NEW bank account,
that quote "it will be getting interest and wont that be nice for you and your brother when Mom dies". He claims that Sis is a creditor and no monies can be used for
creditors. Our position is we are not creditors. At any rate Sis will end up being the fud.
With his (agent) explanation, it means that any monies that I or my wife (since we live much closer to Mom) spend on her behalf, we will not be reimbursed.....until
in his words "she dies". Mom is lucky she served in the Air Force when she did...I'm sure she was not thinking of her living situation at 81 yrs young when she enlisted.

We are just incredulous to the fact that the money that has been spent for the ALF at Moms behalf is not going to be returned.
If this is the case with all the other fud's out there we sure would like to know, it would help knowing that we are not the only ones.
Thank you again for being a valuable resource to all Vet's and their families.
CLJ

[KarenO]

When we met with the VA rep he specifically asked me if anyone was out of pocket and if we wanted to be reimbursed.  I told him how much I was out of pocket but only wanted to be reimbursed for half of it.  He duly noted his file and authorized me to reimburse myself and told me to write a check to myself when the funds hit the account.     

[CLJ2010]

Thanks for your input Karen...Our rep said nothing about being reimbursed 
I guess we just drew the short stick when it comes to nice reps......and we were polite to a fault...
There are some people in this world that just like having power over others and especially enjoy using it. Thats why
this health care crappola scares the hell out of me  ....26,000 new treasury agents to force compliance,
making sure you either a. have insurance or b. pay a fine if you don't. Thanks again and I'm really glad you had a better
experience than we did