I'm in California, and last year my dad had a stroke that left him mentally incapacitated. He's in a care home right now. Earlier this year I became conservator, and now I'm trying to get access to his social security account. Basically a new bank account was setup and I don't have access to his current account.

Social security isn't really cooperating with me and the people I talk to insist on talking to my dad, and they mentioned that the conservatorship is irrelevant and they don't need to honor that. Just that it's up to them if they appoint me his representative payee or not. Today someone I talked to said they want a doctor's note. It seems like I'm going in circles here, but is there any truth to this? As in is conservatorship really meaningless for this and it's just up to the whim of whatever person I speak to that day? Do I have any recourse here?