Follow
Share

My mom has mental problems and dementia . One sibling had her meet with an attorney. Since then that attorney has sent letters to the other siblings . Mine and another siblings' letter are the same wording. Each letter is the same stating mom has appointed you her attorney in fact and has ALSO designated you as patient advocate (DURABLE POWER of ATTORNEY for Health Care). There is no other mention in this letter about any of the other siblings NOR does it have a mention of any sequential order into the appointment or appointments. Giving ONE the impression that MOM appointed THAT individual to do all this .The letter ALSO mentions that the conservator or person with guardianship may at any time request any and all paperwork of any TRANSACTIONS to date. There is ALSO an advisory that if you sign you WILL BE subject to Criminal and Civil penalties in the performance of your duties . Somehow I AM suspicious of EACH LETTER being the same appointments and also of NO mention of any of the other siblings being assigned the same duties and no sequential order the appointments would be handed down. Is my CONCERN warranted ?

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Find Care & Housing
First call and ask the attorney what this all means. If you also have POA he should be able to answer the question. Have you asked tge sib that took her to the attorney? It couod be that Mom wanted to appoint all of you to try to avoid power struggles? Or she wants all of you to decide which of you takes tge lead.
(0)
Report

Well let me ADD this -- there is already a LIVING WILL which seems to have been FORGOTTEN conveniently ! And one sibling has taken things into their OWN hands with NO CONSULTATION of the others and this is ALSO the sibling that set up the attorney mtg with mom -- in fact it is THAT siblings attorney .
(0)
Report

Just what are you being asked to sign? Where I live the person designated as POA doesn't sign the document, just the person granting it and 2 witnesses. It goes without saying you should never sign anything you don't understand. I would call the lawyer and ask for a copy of the actual POA, you would need to have it anyway in order to use it. It wouldn't hurt to run it over to your own lawyer to see if everything is as it should be. As for the sibling that initiated all this, well perhaps they were tired of waiting for someone to get the ball rolling and stepped up to get it done.
(1)
Report

The sibling that initiated this did so without consulting the others . And I was already rolling with things in communication with mom's county aging council for direction and was in the process of gathering the others after the Holidays.
(0)
Report

the documents WE are being asked to sign IS acceptance of designation as attorney in fact and acceptance of designation as patient advocate . Which also states I may be subject to civil and criminal penalties if for any reason I VIOLATE my duties as such
(0)
Report

So you don't sign, you can't accept what you haven't seen or been asked about in advance. Ask the lawyer for some clarification. And the statement about criminal penalties etc is probably just legalese common to all such documents.
(1)
Report

I suppose the lawyer made quite a tidy sum of.money, sending out all those.letters....and dealing with all.the inevitable phone calls... I guess I went into the wrong field! Lawyers always get paid for their time, teachers, expected to bend over backwards.
(0)
Report

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter