Has anyone on here had to deal with a stepchild of their parent who has dementia changing beneficiary to themself after making their self POA?
My mother’s stepson did this by force and took all his dad’s assets and changed beneficiaries to himself. Bought himself a 1.2 million dollar home 3 months later.
I just want to repeat here what I said below.
You added, in your responses to our suggestions, that you have already given all your proof to ALL ENTITIES including seeing attorneys and putting in money to try to negotiate all of this. If I haven't become confused in all this you are trying mostly now to act on behalf of your mom, and the deceased person was a stepfather with his own child. And that there is dementia for the mother???
We are often given the question here on AC forum "Can I contest a will". You say your mom needs help now. And sadly the answer is always "Yes. ANYONE can contest a will. BUT the person contesting must be willing to spend 10s of 1,000s of dollars to do so, AND must know it is VERY unlikely that they will ever win a contest on a decently written will of any kind".
I am afraid that you have already done everything you could. You have presented reams of proof and have seen every legal entity including paying attorneys and ALL have told you there is not any hope. I really don't think we strangers, not experts in anything, can do a thing when the experts are all waving the white flag. I am afraid that this is over. I feel your frustration and anger, but there are times when there is nothing to do but back away and let it go. It is sad, but sometimes your own mental health demands it.
I am so sorry. A worthless thing for you, I know. But there's just not a lot of hope here, and pounding your head on a brick wall is hopeless and self-harming.
I was hoping someone on here might have had some knowledge of something I had not already tried.
My mom just snapped when she lost her husband. She was a hard person to deal with even before, but no one deserves what happened to her. I think her bitterness over everything caused her to lash out even more. I cannot blame her. She is dying a slow death. She weighs about 80lbs now. I see often, but I wish I could take care of her. It is impossible. Tried many times. Maybe the best help I can get now from anyone is prayers that there is justice and the stepson is stopped before he does this again. Like I said, I found out later that he has done this before to other elderly people.
My next step is to see if a prosecutor will at least listen to what happened and maybe the stepson will be punished because I know what he did was illegal. Changing beneficiaries to yourself is illegal.
My health has suffered so much. I rarely sleep and will look forward to whatever is next because this life has been brutal.
I know it’s expensive but that is the only way
Watch a movie called “I Care a Lot” That movie boiled my brain and there is a lot of that stuff that really happens in real life. So many crooks out there in the “legal” system. I wish I could be like that crazy movie “Peppermint”. Lol.
A lawyer is who you need and they've already reviewed your proofs and case and have decided it is not strong enough, or that you won't be able to pay the retainer for their services.
It is apparently a labor-intensive case that is not slam-dunk regardless of 100 pages of evidence. I'm so sorry for this distressing situation.
Call APS about elder fraud.
This should have been reported at once.
That it was not, this fraudulent getting of a POA, and these changes, will not bode well.
I imagine that the APS will guide you in your options at this late date. If this has not happened VERY RECENTLY I suspect that none of this matters and that not a lot can be done, especially if the elder is now deceased.
You really haven't given us enough information, so when you see APS or an attorney be certain that you have all the facts and proof you are able to collect.
The stepson would not even let my mom see her husband and that made my mom even more upset. There is no legal help for elders. The ones I did talk to said what he did was wrong, but no lawyer would rake the case unless I paid them thousands and thousand's of dollars. One lawyer wanted 40k just to try. If I had money to burn that would be great, but then no money left after attorneys take it all IF you win. The stepson has so much money now from stealing from his dad and from other elderly people that he can pay his way out. He has done this before to other elderly people and gotten away with it.
In either case, whether he was validly POA or not, he would not be allowed to use it to enrich himself, against his father's interests. So if your father intended accounts and assets to stay as his own, or go to your mother, but the stepson transferred them to himself, that would be illegal.
Is your stepfather still alive, or deceasesd?
I suggest you start by contacting Adult Protective Services and ask them to investigate whether the son committed any financial crimes, abuse, theft, etc. against your stepfather and your mother.
My stepdad just passed away 2 weeks ago.
If a dementia diagnosis is documented and any changes to POA or financial beneficiaries happen after the written diagnosis it can be consider Elder financial abuse.