As my mother’s POA am I responsible for the property left to her as a living trust?

No I don’t believe you are. However the house should have been turned over to your step sister if your mom has moved out and won’t be returning. Usually that’s how it works with these life estate things. Your mom is allowed to stay in the house for the rest of her life right? But she can’t sell it or give it away. Upon death or her moving out, the house belongs to your step dads daughter right? I would just tell the daughter it’s her house now. Your mom does have the right to leave the house & give up her financial responsibility to it.

You really should consult an Elder Care Attorney for best how to deal with the property and the trust.
And as far as maintaining the property the funds to do so should come from your moms monies not yours. If you have been paying to maintain it I hope you have receipts so that you can be reimbursed. This is also for homeowners insurance, gas, electric, property taxes and all the other good stuff that comes with owning a house.

May I suggest that it would be better to get a renter into the house and have a rental management company take care of it. Mom still owns the house and gets an income. You don't have to do the upkeep. Less headaches all the way around. Use the money to hire help for mom - and so you can get some care for yourself accomplished.

It sounds as though she needs to be in a nursing home. This requires putting her on Medicaid, which is tricky. See an eldercare attorney for estate planning, or at least a social worker. Use her money to repair her home. Not yours.

Karenslife. I feel for you! I went through this same exact issue this year. Sorry, this will probably be long. My mom had a life estate on my stepfathers deed. At her death his 2 daughters who were the remaindermen would get the house. Last July I moved my mom who lived in PA into AL. Her grandson who had been living with her was remaining in the house. She had been his caregiver for the past 15 years. He now had to apply for a HUD apartment of his own. It took 9 months but he finally got placed in one. So as of this past Feb the house was now empty. To make matters even more complicated my mom hated it in the AL facility that was very nice and one that she was previously employed. She called me in South Carolina threatening me that she had a house to live in and she was gonna walk the 2 miles to her house and she would kick the door down if no one would take her. I finally moved her in with me down here last November. Back to the life estate. I talked with an elder lawyer in SC. I told him the house that my mom had a life estate in was going to be sold. It was empty and we did not want my mom to be responsible for paying the taxes, utilities, insurance or maintenance for ex if it needed a new furnace...She would be responsible for paying for it. He explained that yes, it would be her responsibility. The only income she had was SS and that was $1,300 a month. She had no savings. He advised not to sell the house and that if mom had to be put in a nursing home that Medicaid would ask for her share of that life estate. In the Medicaid Manual there is a chart that shows factors for the person who holds the life estate and another column for the remaindermen...the step sisters. It is based on age at the time of sale ( needs to be a fair market value price)and then shows the factor. You would times the sale price x this factor. According to the chart my mom should have received $42,000. According to my lawyer if she did not get this money she would be penalized. For ex if one month at a nursing home costs $6,000. You divide that amount into the $42,000 which equals 7. The penalty would be... I would have to keep her for 7 months before a nursing home would admit her. Long story short...the end results... after multiple visits to my elder attorney and a visit to an Elder attorney in PA, which my step sisters went with me.. my mom got NOTHING. The elder attorney in PA said there was no value to the life estate. She sent me another chart which had to do with Tax Revenues and it indicated she should get $14,000. My step sister in PA called my attorney in SC and he told her if PA says there is no value that I better get that in writing in the event Medicaid here would ask for the money. I do have a document that shows this. On the Medicaid app there is a question...Have you gifted anything in the past 5 years... The attorney explained to me that Medicaid would consider my mom getting nothing that she gifted her amount to my 2 step sisters. I myself now after getting the document stating there was no value will answer that question NO. But Medicaid may still find out and then will have to explain. I still want to see the attorney 1x more to show him the document. Also he advised that I either do a Caregivers agreement or a Rental agreement with my mom. So I opted for a rental agreement. $700 a month is automatically deducted from her checking account and into a separate savings account in my name. I have not touched that money and won't. I want to keep her for 5 years if possible that way the life estate won't be an issue anymore. But if I can't then I will self pay for her nursing home from the money she has in her checking account, and cash in the 5 whole life insurance policies she has had for 50 years. I would also use the rental money if I had to in my savings account to pay down the penalty amount if I have to. Worst case scenario...I will have to keep her with me for 7 long, hard months.

Karin, there are too many questions needing answering, such as:

- Is the house in the trust, in other words, is the house deeded to the living trust?

- If so, who is the current trustee?
-- I can only GUESS the original trustees were both your stepdad and your mom. If this is so, then your mother should be the trustee.
-- If your mother is trustee, with Alzheimer's she may not be competent to sign any documents. There should be a paragraph in the trust in case of incompetency and how that's handled.
-- If the trustee was only your stepdad, and your stepsister is the successor trustee, it's all on her to control the house, according to the terms of the trust.

- Who has the trustee documents: the original (or copies) Declaration of Trust, all amendments to the trust, and the Schedule A (the document that lists all the property IN the trust)?

- Does the trust document establish a life estate for your mother and what are its conditions?

You stated "Except [the house] has value to my mother if she out lives her savings. If I sign it over to my stepsister I could be responsible for paying ..." If the house is in the living trust and you're NOT the trustee, you have no authority to sign over the house or sell it. The authority for any trust rides with the trustee/successor trustee (or applicable term) and not a POA.

The bottom line is: what do the trust documents state and how the house is deeded. Verifying how the house is deeded is easy, you can look it up online (many municipalities have a city or county website where you can look it up) or you can call them since it's hard for you to leave the house.

Find the trust documents, find out who is the current trustee, with help from your stepsister. She has a vested interest in figuring this out too! This isn't all on you to solve!

From there, contact an attorney (that you're already doing) and get advice for your mother's rights and authority, if she has any.

Taarna had great suggestions to earning income from the house and its benefit to your mother and you. I hope you're able to find a great outcome for yourself, Karin. You deserve peace and taking care of only yourself.

Each State has slightly different laws about this, but let me tell you what our family is doing.
My mother is 102 and until recently she was living in her own home. No Estate. She fell, broke a femor and is now in a nursing home. She will not be returning to her house.
As POA my son is paying all the house expenses, taxes, oil, power etc. We will then sell the house. The money from the house goes to the State and when she has no more than $1600, the state of Connecticut will provide Medicaid and pay for the nursing home. The state also takes her social security and pension.

You, as POA are not obligated to maintain the house, but if you want to sell it, you need to pay the tax , the realtor etc. But USE HER MONEY. You have that complete power.
we felt it worth speaking to an elder lawyer. They can be extremely helpful and save you money and aggravation.
Also, take care of yourself , please.
best wishes

These issues turn on how the deed for the house is titled.   It's not clear to me if the house is titled in the name of the trust or your stepfather's daughter.   

The person who is the trustee, or settlor as it's called, is the person who can and would have to convey the house from the trust to an individual.  

You wrote that b/c of "Because of being left as a living trust the state can get a portion of it if her money runs out first".  Are you referring to a Medicaid interest, or something else?

Medicaid has nothing to do with the house until Mom passes and I am not sure how a life estate will effect that. Just my outlook, life estate means that the person can live in the house, they don't own it. Once Mom moved out and in with you, that agreement was null and void. So the house reverts to daughter. How does the trust read? Was Mom ever on the deed? If not, them SF just made sure the house wouldn't be taken away from her. That she had a place to live. She now doesn't need that place. You really need to speak to the lawyer who drew up the trust.

My "outlook" comes from knowing a woman who set up in her Will that if she went first, her second husband would be able to live in "her" house until his death. Upon his death, the house reverted back to the children of her first marriage.

Medicaid does not consider a home when concerning paying for care. They look at Moms finances. What she brings in monthly. Money she has been put aside. Insurance policies with cash values. CDs, IRAs, bonds, stocks, shares, anything that can be liquidated. That money can be used to prepay a funeral. Any money she may have needs to be used for her care before Medicaid will pay. If all Mom has is her monthly income and its under the cap, applying should be easy.

What I did was start the Medicaid application in April. Mom moved into a NH May 1. She paid 2 months Privately and Medicaid took over July 1st.

So, stop worrying about the house. Its not considered till after Moms death. At that time ur POA is no longer in effect. The Executor will be responsible for figuring out how the house works. My feeling, Mom is not a legal owner.

You personally are not responsible for the house. Once Mom is in a facility on Medicaid all her money will go to her care. Nothing will go towards the house.

You need to get the daughter involved. As his daughter she maybe able to do things you can't.

Come back and tell us how things work out.

Ask an attorney who can give you correct answers in regard to the state you live in and the legal document pertaining to the house. Call the atty who wrote it and you might get info for $little or nothing.