fiduciary never appointed

[gbrown]

I have taken care of my brother for over 2+ years who was rated incompetent to handle his funds. I have never had anyone appoint me as a fiduciary or had a field reviewer come out to check out the living conditions. Even though the letter from the rating office states that they may appoint a fiduciary, they never did. I had POA over him and he was released to me from the nursing home. My problem is I have been handling his money for him and am concerned if I did things correctly. I am not a veteran and was never told what steps should have been taken. He now wants to handle all his money and just pay me rent. I am concerned because he can't handle money and will gamble it away. I have to feed him, provide him housing, ect. and was managing his money in the past. I recently found out that the POA I have is worthless and he can get his money to himself. What should I do?

[VSR]

Being rated incompetent does not inherently mean that a fiduciary must be assigned.  I would email VA this question by using iris.va.gov

[caregiver48]

hi
i am new to this forum and just found  it online about a week ago.  i didnt understand what  u said about the fiduciary.  if a veterans widow is found incompetent dont a fiduciary have to be appointed?  also i read that u said if u filed bankruptcy u cant be a fiduciary.  i filed bankruptcy back in 2002 and it will be coming off my credit reports in march 2012.  can i be considered as my 93 year old mother fiduciary since i am her only caregiver and been so for over 10 years.  i am in the process of filing for her and saw where another website said u could be a fiduciary if u had filed bankruptcy.  why do the field examiner check your credit report anyway and are there any exceptions to this rule?  thanks for taking the time to read and respond.

[vetadmin]

The VA views someone who has filed bankruptcy as someone who is probably not very good at managing money, and feels there is the potential of a mis-handling of funds they would be overseeing.

I don't know how they would view an issue of 10 years ago that would be coming off your record.  Perhaps someone else on the board can speak to that.

The VA does require any applicant that is found to be mentally incompetent to have a Fiduciary appointed whether that be a family member or VA appointed to handle financial matters.

[caregiver48]

hi
thank u for the info. if i wait until the bankruptcy is removed from my credit report to file an application could i then be considered as a fiduciary since then my credit report would be good enough for the field examiner.  i dont know what to do.  do i just take my chances and file now.  by the time i get a decision the bankruptcy would be off my reports anyhow .  what do u think...