New York Estate Planning & Elder Law Blog
An Often Overlooked Power in Durable Power of Attorney Documents
Your elderly mother lives and intends to continue residing in Florida. You live in New York. She becomes mentally incapacitated and you move her in with you to take good care of her. You are her agent as designated by her Durable Power of Attorney documents and you manage and handle all of her affairs like taking her to the doctor and getting her the attention she needs but you start to run into some problems when you attempt to enroll her in your state’s Medicare program and other entitlement programs. The power of attorney documents do not give you the power to establish her domicile. Even though your mother resides in New York now she still is domiciled in Florida and only qualifies for assistance in Florida.
How do you establish a new domicile and what is a domicile? Traditionally, establishing a new domicile is easy. Wherever you consider home, the place you intend to indefinitely stay, is your domicile. Proof of being domiciled in a certain state typically includes where your primary residence is, where you vote and where your family and children live. This is different from where your residence is. You can have multiple residences but only one domicile.