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From what you had written, your Mother isn't able to make those decisions, so I am curious how did your brother become Power of Attorney? Was the Power of Attorney created by an Attorney? Was this Power of Attorney put into place when your Mother could make decisions? No Attorney would allow someone to sign a legal document if said Attorney didn't feel the person understood the wording.
I think where you will have legal recourse is if you can show your brother used the funds other than as directed in the POA. But you need to be sure of the language in the POA. For instance my moms DPOA says I can pay someone to care for her cat. If brother and I were in evil cohoots I could be paying him $1,000. a month for kitty care - my mom did not specify a limit on kitty care spending. As suggested by others your best recourse is to see an attorney - probably starting with the one who drew up the POA - he should be willing to have an initial visit with you for no charge if he is ethical and all you are looking for to start, is some basic information. At the same time, if he is ethical there will be a limit on how much he can share with you. Start with saying you are concerned with mothers ability to afford care - don't put him on the defensive by throwing out accusations of theft and don't make it about you. Good luck!
My mother created the CD years ago and put my name on it. I didn't even know of its existence till I found out that he had cashed it in.
Simply put: With an ostensibly "legal" POA, could he sign off on cashing this?
Can he cash out the CD given POA over my mother's finances? Would he need my permission to do so?
And what did he do with the money? That's clearly the issue; if he consolidated it in another account for your mother, that's one thing. But if he appropriated it and used it for himself, it's financial and elder abuse, breach of fiduciary authority and probably fraud.
What I don't understand though is how he could "clear out" an account held jointly with you and your mother. If it's joint, your name is on it, and if you didn't sign to close out the account, are you inferring that he forged your name?