Guardianship and conservatorship are court proceedings. The former gives the guardian power over health care and placement decisions, the latter over financial matters. Both require that the subject of the proceeding be incapacitated or unable to handle matters without assistance. By definition, one must be competent to execute a power of attorney, and must be willing to delegate authority.
Representative payee is a designation given by some pension and other benefits programs.
The most familiar of these, of course, is the Social Security Administration, which may determine that a beneficiary is unable to handle his or her own checks based on a doctor's letter. Competent people can not have guardians or conservators appointed, and incompetent patients can not execute powers of attorney. Send your legal questions to us for future discussion in Elder Law Issues . The study concluded the reason for this phenomenon is that doctors in every field of specialization see some elderly patients on a regular basis, but are not necessarily versed in the unique needs of the elderly.