I’ll give you an example of what I went through recently.
As my parents’ conservator, I applied for a reverse mortgage
on their house. They were getting short
of funds, and being in their 90s, it seemed to be a good time to pursue a
reverse mortgage. They needed the money
to hire caregivers in the home so they would not have to move to a residential
facility, definitely not something they wanted to do.
After signing hundreds of papers (which I have legal
authority to do as their conservator), the broker asked for a photo ID. Apparently it is part of the Patriot Act –
you have to prove who you are and your age.
Since the reverse mortgage is based on the owner’s age, it is required
to process the reverse mortgage. It was
easy for my mother because she is trusting of my sister and me, so she gave me an old driver’s license and her passport. But my father is another story. He is suspiscious and fears government agents are
stealing his identity. This made is
nearly impossible to get a copy of his ID. No amount of explanation, exhortations, pleading, begging
resulted in his proffering the ID.
I kept thinking about all the times that I had an
opportunity to get copy of his driver’s license, but because I
did not know at the time how important it was I did not grab it and
copy it for safekeeping.
It was only through a miracle (which I will describe in
another posting) that I was able to get a photo ID that showed his
birthday. The RM is in process as I
post.
So your tip of the
day is:
Always keep a photocopy of a
valid photo ID for your elder parent or loved one in your files.
