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If one is in their late 70's and doesn't have anybody they'd feel comfortable asking to serve as their financial Power of Attorney, how does one find a professional fiduciary to assist them in that capacity? And how much is an acceptable fee to anticipate being charged for services rendered to serve in that capacity?

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nck4me: Retain an elder law attorney to assist you with your query.
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The Fiduciary business is kind of treacherous for a lot of good people, with the legalities components, many wished they taken a different route instead. Once a person is awarded to the courts, it impacts all aspects of their life, plus the big if, meaning a court appointed or similar not necessarily perform as expected. Think twice.
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AlvaDeer May 2023
Licensed Fiduciaries in my own state are held to the HIGHEST and STRICTEST standards, Chizzle. While they "may" be appointed by courts when there is no family willing or able to handle financial conservatorships, it is not necessarily the only way they are appointed. They can be appointed by a party without family to serve as financial POA.
The one who watched over my brother's ex-partner the last decade of his life was in fact hired by the ex-partner, and he did an exemplary job.

Any Licensed Fiduciary who acts in an illegal manner will be looking at jail time, as this is a profession with some of the highest fiduciary legal standards existing legally imho.

I am uncertain what your own experience is, but I think it may be unusual? And I certainly hope so.
The courts usually demand the highest accounting standards there are for anyone serving in a fiduciary capacity, family or professional.
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That sounds like a wonderful plan!
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Call an attorney. Gena

Alva's response below is much better than mine:

The PFCA (Professional Fiduciary Assn of California) is at 866-886-7322 or pfac-pro.org. It is the assn. for my own state, and may help guide you to information for your own state. The important thing here is not to trip into a person calling himself a Financial Fiduciary, which is just a professional financial advisor who is paid according to the vehicles he can "sell you" such as insurance company annuities.
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The attorney we hired to advise us on pursuing a conservatorship recommended a local professional fiduciary. He charges $150/hr and that's a bit less than what they're asking in the San Jose area which was quoted at $180/hr. We are in California where memory care is about $10K/mo and in-home care is $37.50 per hour ($900/day).
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AlvaDeer May 2023
Rates so vary. Less in Palm Springs area. Just at about 100 to 120 an hour last I checked (albeit about a year ago). (90.00 an hour three years ago for my brother's friend, who maintained that rate until the gentleman's death this year). He used more at time of set up of all bills and so on but in terms of monthly time billed it came to only about an hour a month toward the end when he was in placement and all bills just automatically withdrawn from accounts.
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You can hire a lawyer and expect to
pay a percentage of the estate value. I googled “percentage of estate for executor” and found it’s between 1/2% and 5% based on the value of the estate.
For example, in PA, it’s:
5.0% on the first $150K
4.0% on the next $150K
3.0% on the next $1.2M
2.0% on the next $1.5M
1.5% on the next $1.5M
1.0% on the next $1.5M
0.5% on the next $1.5M

I’d expect the executor to hire contractors (movers, junk removal, appraisals, estate sales, realtor , cleaning, etc.) but it wouldn’t be paid with the executor cut.

The article at the website below specifies exclusions for VA:
https://www.estateexec.com/Docs/Compensation?state_abbrev=VA#:~:text=Executor%20compensation%20for%20VA%20estates,on%20the%20next%20%24300K
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The PFCA (Professional Fiduciary Assn of California) is at 866-886-7322 or pfac-pro.org. It is the assn. for my own state, and may help guide you to information for your own state. The important thing here is not to trip into a person calling himself a Financial Fiduciary, which is just a professional financial advisor who is paid according to the vehicles he can "sell you" such as insurance company annuities.

They also often can be found by calling the office of an elder law attorney or a Trust and Estate attorney, as these folks work with them through the court system when people who have no relatives require state guardianship.
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I feel like I'm on my own sometimes . I might check out some of this info. Lol
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Check this link out https://corpguard.org/. There may be one similar to this organization in your own area.
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aermay May 2023
This is a really helpful website. Thank you for referring.
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Your best answers will most likely come from consulting an Elder Law Attorney.
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Check out aadmm.com to see if there is someone in your area. These people have to take an exam every year or 2 to qualify. This site was recommended by a care coordinator on an educational meeting.
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One possibility would be to hire an attorney who can specialize with elder care issues. That lawyer could handle your financial matters and be assigned as your POA. If there are assets involved you would be best hiring an attorney anyway to put those affairs in order. I don't think the fees would be too excessive beyond what you would be paying anyway. The attorney we initially hired for us and my now late mother told us he dealt with certain elderly individuals in these instances where there was no family or others to automatically deal as a POA and inherit anything from an estate after death.
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remember1984 May 2023
I am setting up an arrangement in which the attorney , who is specialized in elder law, would execute my will which leaves all to one church for specific civic programs: Pay tuitions for practical nurse studies in community collleges, after deducting his fees based on lawyer hours involved in my POA, plus outstanding fees for hours involved of my case by the guardian, the professional that takes over when I would be judged incompetend or disabled by my primary physician plus one more other physician. Mine is an extreme case because I simply have no relative or friends available and must rely on professionals. The involvement of attorney, professional guardian, two physicians and the church, means reasonable expectation of proper execution.
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