The Financial Guardianship

I arranged to have Karen’s taxes done.  She was due some small refunds from her final paycheck at her grocery store job.  She worked there for 10 years before they closed the store.  They paid her for 10 years of vacation time.  She never took a day off.

I think the lose of her job and the lost of the structure of the work environment may have added to her deteriorating situation last year but there’s no way to know for sure.

I wanted to put the tax refunds into her trust account.  I am afraid that she is running through her cash too fast and with the thousands of dollars of credit card bills, I wanted to make sure that she had a little money set aside to pay the bills; to make sure she didn’t just spend the money.  Doing the tax returns were not a big deal, depositing a $180 check was a whole other matter.

First you have to provide the bank with proof you are the guardian.  Here I am attempting to put the money into the account that has Ka’s name on it, where there is a certificate that I am a qualified trustee.  The account has been in place for over 10 years.  I never have had a problem taking money out. So, I had to provide a copy of the Certificate of Guardianship along with the deposit.  These sealed guardianship certificates have to be paid for.  The first check for the state refund required a certificate and it appears that they will need another one with the federal return.  This is exactly the same document.  No one knows how to handle these transactions.  You also get the vibe that the clerks seem to think you are stealing someone’s money.  It’s a subtle attitude but it’s there none the less.  Maybe it’s reasonable for someone to assume that if someone has a pay check and is getting a tax return that they are able to manage their own finances.  They are outsiders looking in and really don’t understand the bad spending when it starts.

This is one of the other problems dealing with a financial guardianship.  Nothing is easy.  

Yours truly,

Cupcake McQueen