My brother stole $2 million from my mother who has dementia and now she is running out of money. What can I do?

If you can't prove that he has stolen the money from your Mom, what makes you simultaneously affirm that he has stolen $2million? On what are you basing your concern? If you can answer the question for yourself in terms of what is causing you reasonable suspicion, report the matter to your local authorities. If you are unsure, that is a pretty serious allegation to level against another person. Start with Adult Services in your state and/or a lawyer to get some advice and a much-needed reality check for your suspicions. Good luck with resolving the matter. In the end, your Mom's well-being matters. Do what you need to do to protect her if you reasonably suspect fraud.

sounds like ure gonna need a lawyer for that . 2 million dollars is alotta money .
u can prove that if you ask the bank , or unless ur mother had all that money under her bed ??

This is financial elder abuse, report to the police or talk with the Dept of Adult Services in your county. If you do this they might conserve her, get guardianship of her estate and probably personal as well. They may or may not press charges, and may or may not even go after the stolen funds, They didn't when sister stole over $6,000 via credit card, unpaid loan and forgery...but it would have cost mom more in lawyer fees than the amt. collected. She still doesn't think she did anything wrong. That's the hardest part. Impunity, a word i use a lot these days. Everyone gets it except me.

He can go to prison and be out of the picture. Who knows, he may have hidden it somewhere, invested in "stuff" like a car or timeshare or ?? Good luck getting rid of him and getting some justice.

If you apply for medicade there will be a look-back period and they for sure will get to the bottom of this and he will have to pay it back there is a question about any amount of $2000.00 or more of their money being spent on the application he should be reported to Social Services and to the IRS That amount of money could have insured great care for her for a long time in her own home-I would make sure this was made public.

If your mother runs out of money and needs to be taken care of via Medicaid, I believe government will investigate the history of your mother's estate. Even if it is determined that your mother gave her son the money, if the sum was over $12,000 per year (the legal gift limit without tax repercussions) they will want the money returned.

Beleive me,with that kind of money your moms estate will be audited,if you want it to be or not.The government will always get their share you can count on that,be ready for a long and winding road.

All of the above answers give you some good ideas and one comment hinted at a good point - if your brother claims that Mom "gifted" him the funds, then he should have reported anything over $10,000 per year to the IRS and pain taxes on it. You can at least get him in trouble with the IRS for failure to pay taxes. It might sound spiteful but as another comment said "it will get him out of the picture". It's sad that a times when our elders need family the most, some take the worst advantage of their vulnerability. When this happens the best thing to do is cut the strings. It's okay to cut off relationships with these type of evil, selfish relatives - if they could they'd probably take advantage of you too, so protect yourself and have nothing to do with him after your Mom's gone.

If it were my brother, I'd work behind the scenes to get conservatorship or guardianship and a restraining order. Then the next time he went gambling, I'd move Mom to a relatives' home for a couple of days or take her to an assisted living facility as a lock smith changed the locks. Pack all his crap into garbage bags and haul it the end of the property line and have him served with the restraining order or an order of protection while he's at the casino or where ever he goes. Be a harda__! It's okay when it comes to protecting our elders. It''s no longer about her $$, it's about her safety. Once he's gone through her $$, her safety is at risk since these jerks will get desperate. They'll steal social security checks, sell belongings and have property transferred to their name.

Let us know how it goes. Good luck and god bless.

The estate,I believe,would be responsible for the gift taxes,which would be your mom,so unless you can prove this about your brother,it would be your mom and the estate you would be getting in trouble.Who's POA,that matters.They could say your mom was purposely hiding money.all the IRS cares about is that they get theres with penalites.So, before you report someone you need to talk to a tax lawyer or somebody who knows the consequences.The legal system is not simple and easy,its a business.

My original point was that when your Mom runs out of money and needs nursing home care, Medicaid will investigate the history of the estate over the last few years and require your brother to give any money back to provide for her care.