Rae Ann, as long as no one has determined that your husband is medically incompetent -- signed legal papers to that effect -- you should be fine. I think a court has to make that determination, and then usually only does so after two doctors have signed documents confirming the patient is no longer competent.
I would only be concerned if there is a likelihood that someone might try to fight your rights to care for your husband (greedy children, like those some of the other members of our little family on this web site are having trouble with) -- they might try to claim that the DPOA wasn't valid. I think they'd have a tough time proving it, though.
When my husband's neurologist diagnosed him with moderate AD, she recommended that he have someone else help him whenever he was going to do anything that had legal or financial ramifications. Even that wasn't enough to prevent him from going ahead and executing legally-binding papers, if he chose to ignore her recommendation.
My elder law attorney asked me if he could understand what he was signing. I hesitated, because I remembered when we moved out of the house to an apartment, thinking it was sold (NOT!) he could not grasp that he had to give 60 days notice, and even though he had given 30 days, he insisted that he was right. So, I think that if your husband can understand what he is signing, & has someone to witness that he states that he understands, it may be o.k. But I'm no expert, and if he has already been diagnosed, I would check out all the legalities.
Well, I have received so many different answer from "Official" legal indities. I'm going to go ahead and get the new DPOA/MD etc as it was explained to me yesterday, the cost of having this done will be lost if any family member fights it (I don't think they would) but who knows. I'll be fine I think, if they do fight it, they will not inherit anything, due to the state taking what we have to pay for a NH. I will be somewhat protected as far as the house goes and the stipend I'd be allowed, this of course all based on the DPOA/MD signed last year.
I'm still not clear on this NH issue, if anyone can tell me how this works, I'd appreciate it. Like I've said earlier, what we have is a house and the IRA, small pension, SSD and my income. I don't know what this spin down thing is that people are talking about.
I started out with a DPOA and a Medical POA. Ran into financial issues and declared Bankruptcy. With new Bankruptcy laws, the banruptcy official required I get Legal Guardianship, before she'd let our case proceed. Final oucome is that I now have the DPOA to handle all legal/financial matters, and Legal Guardianship to handle all his other care and the Medical POA was set aside as the Guardianship replaced it and provides the stronger legal standing. In the past, I handled refinancing our home using the DPOA--just a lot more signing on my pat. Even before his Dementia diagnosis we got this, because he has never been able to read (learning disabilities). Until then, he would look to me for an okay before he'd sign anything because whatever it was could say anything and he wouldn't know.