Details to attend

Fool that I was thinking I wouldn't have to do a final reporting to the court, I find myself once again finding and arranging receipts for all the expenses I have incurred taking care of Dad. I have spent two years holding on to every little scrap of receipt to show the court that I wasn't buying something for myself.

This is another example of how one can be punished for the actions of others. I am fully aware that there have been guardians out there that use the estate of their charge for personal benefit. This is almost comical to me in my case because the money would be mine after his death anyway. I am the only living survivor for one thing, and I am the only one names in his will.

When I signed on to be his guardian, I was only looking to protect his investments because I was seeing some things that just didn't add up. I will continue to be cloudy on this point because I have no proof that there were things that were amiss, but there was something going on. I went into this guardianship being very naive. I didn't know I would have to report to the court every year. That incurs another attorney fee. I didn't know there would be a $3000 for the bond on me - every year. I just didn't know there would be so many expenses with this whole thing.

If I had waited, I was his power of attorney, but V was first. I would have had to get her deemed incompetent to act for him if I wanted to really protect him. That would have been a terrible thing to do. The way I did it could be explained without really getting nasty.

My first shock was the second year of accounting. My instructions when I began were to treat his monies as if they were my own in taking care of them. He had several certificates of deposit that were coming due. The new interest rates were horrible. I began looking for what would be a safe investment with a higher yield. I found two annunities. Guess what! The court didn't like annunities. They thought that annunities were not a safe investment. So the CDs have just rolled over since then, except for one time I found a long term CD that paid a higher percent.

I was really hoping that I wouldn't have to get this accounting together again. I'm getting better at it though. I have learned to be much more organized in record keeping - even though I had lost my very own check book for about three weeks. I guess you can try to teach an old dog new tricks, but there is still backsliding that happens!