“Now you can actually have a voice in who is chosen, but you need to do it while you have capacity.”
For many years, people have had the right to designate an agent to handle a number of different legal, business and medical matters. That includes finances, medical decisions, wills and even funerals. What Americans have not been able to do until now, says the article “Social Security and you: New Advance Designation for Representative Payee” from The Dallas Morning News, is designate an agent to handle Social Security benefits.
As of April 6, 2020, the Social Security Administration announced that there is a new option that lets a recipient make an Advance Designation that names a person to serve as your “representative payee.” This is a really big deal, but it hasn’t received too many headlines.
Maybe that’s because under this law, anyone could apply to be a representative payee, receiving someone else’s Social Security payment and using it to pay the recipient’s living expenses. There’s a lot of room for abuse.
The best way forward? Make a decision and name a person while you have capacity. The Advance Designation option is only available to “capable” adults and emancipated minors who are applying for or receiving Social Security benefits, Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Special Veterans Benefits.
A Social Security recipient can name as many as three people, who could serve as a representative payee if the need arises. There’s a lot of flexibility: you can withdraw your choices, change the order of the three people and name new people at any time. Just in case anyone forgets who they named, Social Security is going to send a notice each year, listing advance designees for review.
How will it work? When the SSA believes a person needs help managing benefits, they will contact the advance designees. The SSA reserves the right to discard your choices and make its own appointment.
How do you make the designation? Go online to the SSA website, especially now when phone, in-person and in writing are all either backlogged or not possible to do right now. After you’ve created and successfully logged into the mysocialsecurity website, you’ll see a box titled “Advance Designation of Representative Payee.” It will be towards the bottom of the page. You’ll need the name, phone number and a description of the relationship you have with the person.
Who should you name? The SSA prefers family members, friends or qualified organizations. Your choices should be made carefully. The people you name need to be trustworthy, good with finances, organized and have no prior felonies. They will need to be able to maintain good records and receipts and be available and responsive, if the SSA requests an audit or an in-person visit.
When should you do this? How about now? Like having a will and an estate plan, this is not something that you should put off. And as you are likely at home, there’s no reason not to!
Reference: The Dallas Morning News (April 19, 2020) “Social Security and you: New Advance Designation for Representative Payee”
For more information on elder law and estate planning, please visit my estate planning website.
