My brother took POA and cleared out my Mother, with dementia, bank CD's, including one held jointly in my name. Is this legal?

Joyce, POA ends at death, so unless he was executor too he had only the rights to the joint account he would have had anyways, and the executor would have had to deal with making sure the will was carried out. Both you and the OP may be facing a situation where it was not right to do what they did, but may have been legal. POA is given by a person who is competent though, and if mom had documented dementia of a severe enough degree, she could not have validly signed one. But proof could be difficult and you will have to be willing to make reports to police and/or lawyer up, not necessarily in that order...you may want consultation to even see if you have a case and if you have any realistic chance of recovering any funds.

My Brother had power of attorney for my mother when she died he cashed the CDs she had in the bank they were left to her granddaughter. Can he do that.

abelbody, only your Mother can assign someone to be her Power of Attorney, no one can just take over that position.

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 do know that in the case of joint bank accounts one party or the other can withdraw every cent without the knowledge or consent of the other. Assuming the POA gave your brother authority to act in your mothers place - then yes, I this can be done legally. Once upon a time there were accounts called Tennents in Common - they treated two names as two seperate owners, 50/50. Only 50% could be taken out by one party. These accounts were a pain for various reasons and aren't used any more. But I guess that's irrevolent at this point - other than to show specific arrangments need to be made in joint accounts to keep one account holder from taking all the funds out if they wanted to. If your mother was the owner of the cd, I'm guessing the same access holds true. A good comparison would be if Grannie opened a college savings account for junior, called it Juniors College Fund, Grannie still could clean it out if she wished.
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!

If you are not getting answers from your brother, go see the attorney that created the POA. Look to him to find out the answers and/or file fraud charges if the money is no longer available for her care....do not let too much time go by or it may get spent.

"Good for him"...Really?
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?

Good for him. You should never have joint accounts. Even a Guardian cannot put their name on the ward's assets. Did he do this with a court order?

Assuming it's a legal POA, which is unlikely, it is not a will. Your moms money cannot be used for the personal expenses of your brother. if he is using the money for moms care, fine. Anything else, call the police.

He's certainly not saying what he's done with it. I said he took POA because my mother was not able to tell who people were. She could sign her name though.
Can he cash out the CD given POA over my mother's finances? Would he need my permission to do so?

BTW, how did you find out about this activity? Do you know what he did with the money?

What do you mean that your brother "took" POA? Do you mean he had been appointed, before your mother lost capacity, and accepted the responsibility?

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?