ABA Family Legal Guide

The Rights of Older Americans

A Right to Control Your Own Affairs

Representative Payees

How can I be sure a representative will manage my money properly?

Supervising representative payees can be a problem. In principle, the payee must provide a detailed accounting to the agency paying the benefits. An annual report must be filed with Social Security. However, some exceptions exist. For example, if you live in a few types of mental health institutions, an annual accounting is not required, but the Social Security Administration will audit the institution once every three years. Under some benefits programs, such as the VA, reporting requirements vary with the size of the benefit. There is not much you may do to protect yourself ahead of time in such circumstances, except to plan for incapacity through other methods that allow someone else of your choice to manage your income for you.