Nursing Home as Representative Payee

You don't get to decide this issue. It's done through the Social Security Administration. The nursing home must work directly with the SSA to obtain the agency's appointment. Then the SSA directs payments to the nursing home, either by check, or by Direct Deposit to the nursing home's representative payee account. All of this will be done without action on the bank's part (other than having the appropriate account open, if it's to be at your bank), and you will find that nursing homes will often have a collective representative payee account that receives payments on behalf of many of their residents.

First published on BankersOnline.com 11/27/06