Who signs the contract – the guardian or the parent?

[Anonymous]

Hi Everyone – I am writing up a contractual agreement for a potential new client. This client is the legal guardian of his parents (mom and dad). The agreement is for me to provide DMM services for his parents. I will be dealing primarily with him as the legal guardian however the actual bill paying, financial record management, budgeting, etc. will be for his parents.

My question is this: For the contractual agreement, who is the “client” in this situation – the legal guardian or the parents? Stated another way, who should sign the agreement – the legal guardian, the parents or both?

[Anonymous]

I am assuming he is Guardian of the Estate? If so, as someone who serves as Guardian, the Guardian is the client. Guardianship means that they are incapable of making an informed decision about their finances. The Guardian is making the informed decision on his parents behalf.

Hope this helps.

[Anonymous]

Hi Todd,
In these cases we usually draft the agreement between us and the legal agent. For example something like, “this contract is between COMPANY NAME and AGENT NAME, agent under power of attorney for PARENTS’ NAMES”, so it is clear that we are contracting with him in his capacity as their legal agent.

You may want to check with your attorney on this and maybe other DMMs will have a different way of looking at this.

-Leah

[Anonymous]

You probably have this all figured out by now. The parents’ would not sign if they lost the rights to do so. If they have a guardian, they likely were both deemed incapacitated or have a voluntary guardian. Therefore the guardian signs as a representative of the ward. Keep in mind that the guardian is not personally responsible for the debts of the ward and will be signing as a responsible party.

[Author]

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