Can I sue my brother for misusing his POA and stealing over $300k in checks he made out to himself the day before dad died?

My boyfriend brother got a poa on him and cleanrd out bank accounts and cd that had my nsme on is there anything i can do

BarbaraM, sorry for your loss!! And for the bitter realization that your brother is a thief, and you trusted him. I am assuming you are clear that the money spent was not a negotiated caregiver fee or indirectly spent for your father's care and well-being. He was supposed to sign the checks with HIS name as POA for Dad rather than forging your Dad's signature, that's for sure.

So, if you are very sure he acted with malicious and dishonest intent, you can talk to a lawyer or maybe present a settlement offer to your brother "or else" you will talk to a lawyer. Either way, any relationship you had with him is pretty much over, unless in looking into it further you see that what he did was not all that improper beyond signing the checks incorrectly. Bear in mind as co-POA (unless you were just backup or secondary POA) you were also responsible for seeing your father properly taken care of.

I am dealing with the same thing. My brother and I were POA's for my father. My father just recently passed away and I discovered that my brother spent thousands of dollars on himself. He wrote checks on my dads account and signed my dads name to them. He also diverted my dad's pension checks into his own account. I'm not sure what to do!

Could you fill in some blanks please? Apparently she escaped while in the hospital recovering from the self inflicted stab wound. How did she get from wherever that was to your home? Is she staying with you now?

This is quite a story. As Pam suggests, you need to contact the police, provide all the evidence to them and let them do the investigation for charges of false imprisonment, elder abuse, fraud and probably other charges.

Since these are criminal charges, they wouldn't be subject to a civil suit, but there may be some other issues that would. Ask the police when you call them or take her to the police station.

And get an injunction to keep them away from your mother.

Butterfly, curious how did you find out about these things?

Butterfly, the police will handle this. Let them.

My mom moved out state with my brother when her mother passed away. She is mentally disabled and gave power of attorney to my brothers wife. Every month they forged her name on her disability checks and wouldnt allow her to buy or have one thing she wanted. She decided she didnt want to stay there and when told them, they locked her in a room from outside. Her room was connected to a bathroom so she could go, but they saw her looking out window and nailed over it she didnt know day or nite made her eat pb and j everyday and locked her in that room with nothing but coloring books. My uncle sent the money from grandmother will for my mom to have,well they forged her name and spent it. My mom tried running away but brother and wife physically held her down and took her shoes so couldn't run. She also wasnt allowed to call any loved ones or anybody. She got so discouraged she tried commiting suicide with knife through stomach. Thats how she got away from them and now i found her she told me everything. She wants to sue them and wondering if it can be criminal charges. I want them to pay for this

Reginaeslin - who did your uncle sell to, was it anyone he knew personally?

My Uncle was POA over our Grandmother. She had a will and in her will her last wishes was 22 acres split between Grandchild and our Uncle gets the her home. My Uncle had her sign to sell property 70 present below value, that was in will to grand children one month prior to her death. Do we have a good case to take her uncle to court and win the case.

who do I go to to get my sisters bank account looked into she is power of attorney of my mums estate. she has transferred all her money to her bank and is using the money for her own gains. how do I infestigate this?

I'm not an attorney but that definitely sounds like blatant fraud and elder financial exploitation to me!! It is so common nowadays I'm beginning to think every family has one (at least) of these vultures!! My husband's mother died a few months ago and one son that sucked up to her got everything, leaving the other 4 siblings with nothing from their mother. Not even a photo! But greedy son is happy he got it all!! He wouldn't even spring for a funeral for her. That would cost money!! Now HIS money!!

My 90 year old mom lives with my brother in Florida. He is her POA. He recently sold her half million dollar property to himself for 65,000 dollars and told her just to sign the papers she didn't to read anything. He controls all of her money. This effectively leaves no inheritance for her 7 surviving children. Is this legal?

Sue the vulture!

It's disgusting that you would take your own siblings to court for money when they have been the one taking care of them. You are ALL just the same all about the $. Can't believe you will waste court time with a family feud that you knew was from child hood but waited until parents are incoherent to act as if you are oblivious to monetary actions with a sibling you know they are close to.

I have poa with my sister for both parents she handles their moey I went to bank and can't get records if poa was changed would I be notified

My brother had poa and managed to transfer everything to his own trust prior to my dad's death. This included a forged quit claim deed. My mom said prior to her death everything would be split and let me know where the will was. After her death I decided to look for the will and it was gone. Both parents were on hospice care the last 4 years (my Dad died of end stage Alzheimers) and no telling what he got them to sign. He claims everything was left to him and one of his boyfriends. No atty seems to want to take the case.

Jerryhomes, for something that complex, I would ensure that it was all legal and above board by seeing an attorney that specializes in elder law.

While we can give our opinions and tell related stories on this board, we are not attorneys (that I know of).

What if a son with a Power of Attorney, was asked by his father who has full mental capacity to make this decision, to invest in Real estate? To buy foreclosures, fix them, rent them, and when he passes, to give each child a home to supplement the child income, and the rental income would be will-able to grandchildren if they wished? Knowing the son would have many expenses along the way to do this for 7 children, and wasn't concerned if he took care of his own financial needs while accomplishing this?

Yes, JustAlnLaw, your brother now equally owns the funds in the joint account with your father. My sister did the same thing so I asked the IRS about it for an explanation of how that works. While your father is alive your brother can spend the money in the account any way he wants. He has ownership of it every bit as much as your father does. When your father dies all the money in the account is 100% your brother's. It is not deemed as part of your father's estate since your brother is the joint owner. He is not obligated to share it with any other beneficiaries as designated in your father's will. This is a common way that a sibling can hijack your inheritance - by circumventing the will. Let's say your dad's will says you and 3 other siblings share his estate equally. At the time of his death he has a joint bank account with your brother with $150k balance. He has an Annuity of $500k with only your brother listed as beneficiary, and a house with your brother as joint owner. The rest of his assets total $20k (furniture, car, etc.) Your brother's inheritance would be $650k and whatever the house sells for. The estate of $20k would be split 4 ways, and you and your three siblings would each get $5k of that (bringing brother's total to $655k). Bank accounts with POD (payable on death) or joint ownership are outside of the will and are not included in the estate. Same applies to Annuities and Insurance policies that have named beneficiaries, also joint property ownership. So in this way, your brother would walk away with the bulk of your dad's estate, even though your dad's will spelled out that he wanted his four children to share his estate equally. This is a common way that a sneaky, conniving sibling can make out like a bandit right under their parent's and siblings' noses. My sister has been setting this same scenario up for herself since our father died and our mother is too clueless to understand how it all works. If I bring up the subject to her, I am deemed the greedy and paranoid sister.

Where to turn, I can't help but wonder if the phony site and begging pennilessness is phony baloney and a good private detective might unearth what he really did with the money. That is one sad story though, for sure, either way.

What if your father has put your brother on his checking account, does that give him as much right to the money in the account(even though it was incase he could not pay his own bills (father))?

Jeff, your aunt's POA expired upon your father's death. The judge will appoint an executor at probate. Different inheritance laws in different states. Kansas seems to be as follows:

Who Gets What in Kansas?
Under intestate succession, who gets what depends on whether or not you have living children, parents, or other close relatives when you die. Here’s a quick overview:

•children but no spouse - children inherit everything

•spouse but no descendants - spouse inherits everything

•spouse and descendants - spouse inherits 1/2 of your intestate property & descendants inherit 1/2 of your intestate property

•parents but no spouse or descendants - parents inherit everything

•siblings but no spouse, descendants, or parents - siblings inherit everything

my father recently passed away leaving power of attorney to his twin sister,& he also left no will.it was my fathers wishes for me to live in his mobile home & take care of his 3 dogs that he loved dearly!. my aunt refuses to meet me at the credit union so i can find out what i need to do to keep the mobilehome. it appears that she has takin all the money out of my fathers bank account,just to name a few...no i see why see doesnt want to help me..she wont return my calls or anything i live in fear everyday that they are gonna come & tell me to leave the mobile home...i cant believe my aunt is doing this to me!....i would like to see her put in jail!!!..what can i do?...

Thanks for your comment guestshopadmin. Yes, I'm aware that the "giver" is the one that owes gift tax, but I thought I would wait until after my mom is gone to report it. In that case I would think the IRS would go after my sister instead, but not sure how that would be handled. Seems like they would want the tax however they can get it. Or they could just deem it an inheritance at that point - not sure.

2nd best - just remember the gift tax is owed by the GIVER not the recipient. So the taxes and penalties would be owed by your mother. Be careful in reporting.

In some of the previous posts various people have mentioned the requirement that banks report to the IRS if a transaction is over $10,000. Just wanted to mention that the banking laws also apply to "structuring", which the term applied to avoiding the bank reporting requirement by, for example, making 10 deposits for $9,999 each to deposit $100,000 - instead of depositing it in one sum. The IRS is wise to this practice and it is a felony punishable by fine and up to 5 years in federal prison. If bank personnel fail to report it they could be fined and/or prosecuted as well. So generally not a good idea. Sometimes getting the IRS involved is a good way to get the ball rolling when it comes to our clever fraudulent siblings. For instance, I don't have proof (yet) but pretty sure my sister has finagled about $200k out of our mom over the past year. I can either contact an attorney and hook up a vacuum to my savings account to find out, or I can simply contact the IRS and have them investigate her for free. I have a feeling they will make her wish she never weasled a dime of our mom's money. If they deem it a gift there will be taxes, interest and penalties - Oh My. Not to mention the tax evasion aspect if she fails to report the "gift".

Why haven't I ben notified by the courts of these power of attorney's or proxy's to my probate account , the state of new York never notified me correctly, I wasn't told until I was an adult, and still family trying everything to stop me from getting access to my estate that I am the sole heiress of. I am not handicapped or mentally ill, why didn't the courts investigate this fraud? Can I sue the court for giving frauds access to my inheritance or estate?

what brother when money is in question people come out of the woodwork claiming to be a sibling or cousin, I have never met this so-called brother, he is a liar and a thief why haven't we met if we are siblings?

My brother was my poa when he died I found out he stole 100,000 dollar. What can I do about this.

My husband has Lou Gerhings , I am POA he said I could purchase a car. I didn't buy the car he said I could buy and we are going through a divorce. I just learned he have filed criminal charges against me for misuse of POA.