What documents do I need to manage Mom's finances and care?

Q: What belongs in the one folder?

NIA says put personal, financial, and health information in one place and tell someone you trust where it is. That includes her legal name and Social Security number, bank names, insurance policy numbers, the will, current prescriptions, the health care durable power of attorney, and health insurance cards. Keep copies at home if originals sit in a safe deposit box.

Q: What is the difference between a HIPAA release and a health care proxy?

NIA says giving permission in advance for a doctor or lawyer to talk with the caregiver is different from naming a health care proxy. You may need to sign a form. A HIPAA release at each clinic lets that office talk with you. A health care proxy, named in a durable power of attorney for health care, can make a health decision when she cannot communicate it.

Q: Who signs which paper, and what door does it open?

Mom signs the financial power of attorney while she understands it. Mom signs the health care durable power of attorney and, in Missouri, a Health Care Choices Directive. Mom signs CMS-10106 so 1-800-MEDICARE can talk with you, and a HIPAA release at each clinic. You apply to SSA to be appointed representative payee. Request a DD-214 from the National Archives if she or Dad served.

The papers

Published September 11, 2026. Desk byline, no clinician. Figures on this page point at the sources page, where the URLs and open-dates live.

The search what documents do I need to manage my mom's finances and care has a short answer and a longer one. The short answer is one folder. The longer answer is that each paper opens one door. A health paper does not cash the Social Security check. A bank paper does not let the clinic talk. Form CMS-10106 lets 1-800-MEDICARE talk, and still does not name a health care proxy. This page lists who signs, and what door it opens. Capacity is why the signing order exists. This desk does not decide it.

One folder, three drawers: personal, financial, and health

PersonalName, numbers, records FinancialPOA, banks, policies HealthProxy, releases, CMS-10106 Tell someone you trust where it is

The National Institute on Aging's affairs-in-order checklist is the inventory. Put important papers and copies of legal documents in one place. Tell someone you know and trust, or a lawyer, where to find them. If the papers sit in a bank safe deposit box, keep copies in a file at home.

What belongs in the one folder?

NIA groups the papers as personal, financial, and health. Personal: her full legal name, Social Security number, legal residence, date and place of birth, names and addresses of spouse and children, the location of birth and marriage certificates, employers and dates of employment, education and military records, and the names and phone numbers of doctors, lawyers, and financial advisors. Write the location of each original if it is not in the folder.

Financial, still NIA: sources of income and assets, Social Security information, insurance (life, long-term care, home, car) with policy numbers, bank names and account numbers, a copy of the most recent income tax return, the location of the most up-to-date will with an original signature, mortgages and debts, the deed of trust, car title, and the location of a safe deposit box and key. Add the current bank statements and any MO HealthNet notices from the Department of Social Services. File them. Do not rewrite them.

Health, still NIA: current prescriptions, a living will, a durable power of attorney for health care, copies of any medical orders, and health insurance information with policy and phone numbers. Add the clinic-by-clinic HIPAA releases and form CMS-10106, which are separate from the proxy paper. Review the folder at least once a year, and when a major life event occurs. NIA also says you may want to talk with a lawyer about a general power of attorney, a durable power of attorney, a joint account, or a trust. Ask about the lawyer's fees before you make an appointment. This desk drafts no form and posts no fee.

Source: NIA, Getting Your Affairs in Order, opened September 11, 2026. MO HealthNet program pages live at the Missouri Department of Social Services.

What is the difference between a HIPAA release and a health care proxy?

NIA draws the line in one paragraph. Give permission in advance for a doctor or lawyer to talk with your caregiver as needed. You may need to sign and return a form. Giving that permission is different from naming a health care proxy. A health care proxy can only make decisions if she is unable to communicate them herself. The talk-to-you paper is the release. The decide-for-her paper is the proxy. You can hold one and still be shut out of the other.

At each clinic, ask for that clinic's HIPAA release. One hospital's form does not bind the next office. Put her signature on each, while she can sign. For Medicare itself, the paper is form CMS-10106, Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information, so 1-800-MEDICARE can talk with you. CMS provides a path to submit it online. That form is not the durable power of attorney for health care, and it is not the clinic HIPAA release.

NIA's advance care planning page names the two most common advance directives: a living will, and a durable power of attorney for health care, which names the proxy. They go into effect if she cannot communicate her own wishes. They are not bank papers.

Sources: NIA, Getting Your Affairs in Order; NIA, Advance Care Planning: Advance Directives for Health Care; CMS, Form CMS-10106. Opened September 11, 2026.

Missouri's two common advance directives

Missouri Legal Services names the pair the way this state files them. The most common types of advance directives are a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care, which appoints a trusted individual (an agent or attorney-in-fact) to make health care decisions when she is unable to do so, and a Health Care Choices Directive, similar to a living will, which lets her specify wishes regarding medical treatments, including life-sustaining treatments. Both belong in the folder. Copies go to the agent, the doctor, and the hospital chart. Sections 404.800 to 404.865 may be cited as the Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care Act. Section 404.822 tells the attorney-in-fact to seek and consider the patient's medical diagnosis, prognosis, and the benefits and burdens of the treatment. The Missouri Bar says you do not need a lawyer to complete its free Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care form. That form is health, not the checking account. If you need a lawyer anyway, Missouri Lawyers Help is the bar's referral door. Ask about fees first.

Sources: Missouri Legal Services, Advance directive: it's your right to decide; RSMo 404.800 and 404.822; Missouri Bar, its page on completing the free health-care durable power of attorney. Opened September 11, 2026.

Who signs which paper, and what door does it open?

The table is the folder, flattened. Mom signs the papers that require her signature while she understands them. You do not sign a power of attorney for her. You apply for the one appointment SSA makes. If a daughter cannot sit at the bank, Far Away Daughter is the desk written for her.

Paper	Who signs	What door it opens
Financial power of attorney	Mom, while she understands it. You do not sign for her. Talk with a lawyer. Ask about fees first.	Money and property decisions the document names, including paying for care if you are the agent.
Durable POA for Health Care	Mom. Missouri Bar: you do not need a lawyer to complete its free health care form.	The clinic and the hospital, when she cannot communicate a health decision.
Health Care Choices Directive	Mom. Missouri Legal Services describes this as similar to a living will.	Treatment wishes, including life-sustaining treatment, for the doctor and the agent.
Form CMS-10106	Mom. Authorization to Disclose Personal Health Information.	1-800-MEDICARE can talk with you.
HIPAA release at each clinic	Mom, at that office. Different from a health care proxy.	That clinic can talk with you. The next clinic needs its own form.
SSA representative payee	You apply. SSA appoints. A POA or a joint account is not this appointment.	Negotiate and manage her Social Security or SSI. The money is for her needs, including care, not your bills.
DD-214, if she or Dad served	Request military service records from the National Archives.	VA doors later need proof of service. This can run in parallel.
Insurance policies, bank statements, MO HealthNet notices	Gather. Do not rewrite. File the current copies.	Claims, the runway of her money, and Missouri Medicaid correspondence.

The financial power of attorney is the bank paper. She signs it, while she understands it. If that window is closed, this page stops and an attorney takes over. If you need to manage the Social Security check, you apply and SSA appoints you. Set or check a my Social Security account only as SSA describes. If she or Dad served, request the military service records, including the DD-214, from the National Archives.

Sources: NIA, Getting Your Affairs in Order; SSA, FAQs for beneficiaries who have a representative payee and my Social Security; CFPB, Managing someone else's money; National Archives, request military service records. Opened September 11, 2026.

What to do tonight

Get one folder. Label three clips: personal, financial, health. Put in it every paper you can put a hand on tonight, including insurance policies, bank statements, and MO HealthNet notices.
Tell one other person where the folder is. If the originals are in a safe deposit box, keep copies at home.
Write which papers are missing: financial POA, health care durable POA, Health Care Choices Directive, CMS-10106, a HIPAA release at each clinic, SSA payee appointment, DD-214.
If she can still understand a document, call an elder law attorney about the financial power of attorney before you add a name at the bank. Ask about fees first. Ask each clinic for its release, start CMS-10106, and if she or Dad served, start the Archives request.

When to ask the care team or the doctor

Whether she can understand a document she is being asked to sign is a capacity question for the physician who treats her and for an attorney. A non-medical caregiver does not decide what a symptom means, does not change a dose, and does not sign a power of attorney. If you need the clinic to talk to you, that is the release. If you need 1-800-MEDICARE to talk to you, that is CMS-10106. If you need someone to make a health decision she cannot make, that is the durable power of attorney for health care. This page does not diagnose anyone.

Paid placement

New Plan Care

Papers do not bathe anyone. New Plan Care is an independently owned non-medical in-home care company based in Chesterfield, Missouri. Hours are offered in Ballwin, Chesterfield, Eureka, Glencoe, Grover, Pacific, Valley Park, and the City of St. Louis. This company does not post an hourly figure, and this desk will not invent one. Call (314) 405-0887.

New Plan Care pays for this spot. It is a client of OwnersFirm, which publishes this site, so read it as an advertisement with a phone number rather than as a result, a rank or a recommendation drawn from any of the articles on this page.