She also appears to have burned most of his assets (over 1M) in 8 years. He has advanced Alzheimer’s and needs skilled nursing care but she says there’s “no money left.”
Your sister with power of attorney has some explaining to do.
When you ask her what has happened to the IRA money, what does she have to say for herself?
A question is not an accusation. You are not accusing her of anything. You are asking her a reasonable question and awaiting a sensible answer, that's all.
What do you know about the "old retainer" accountant? Did sister get rid of him for any particular reason - like his charges, for example, or other concerns about him?
If withdrawals from his IRA have been made, this probably would have been considered taxable income, and probably have been taxes withheld. So it does seem that yearly income taxes should have been filed. I would talk to an attorney to see if/how records can be accessed.
You mention in your post that dad needs skilled nursing care. That he lives at home and you help take care of him.
Are other family members also caring for him? Has he had paid caregivers?
As POA does your sister say what her plan is going forward for dad?
It sounds like posters here can understand how the money could have been spent on his care if he was paying for care.
Is sister filing for Medicaid? Is your problem more that you, being a hands on caretaker, see that dad needs skilled nursing now, and sister wants you to continue caring for him?
We need more information to fully understand what is happening.
Your question was can you sue. You can always sue, but to what purpose? It could just be an expensive exercise and meanwhile dad still needs care.
Ask sister if she has filed for Medicaid for father. That might be a better conversation right now since she says there is no more money. Shift your focus.
You may not be privy to what your sister has spent the money on but you have every right to explain that you feel dad needs more care.
The application process for Medicaid will flush out if his funds can’t be accounted for properly. Medicaid will want to review records for the past five years. Get on sisters side and help dad get the care he needs.
Sorry if the info wasn’t complete. The expensive nursing care (at home) began only a year ago. Prior to that another sibling stayed home to care for him. There is no mortgage on the house and he still receive a pension and social security. Apart from utilities, home insurance, property taxes and groceries his health care costs were less than $50.00 per month! Thanks for suggesting the Medicaid question. I will try it.
If your father's taxes are due and unpaid, the authority which levies the tax will take him to court quite soon enough, and his POA as his representative will have to explain herself then. In any case I can't really see what this particular issue has to do with you.
Your father's needing care and being unable to pay for it does have something to do with you, because he's your father and you want him to be looked after properly. But it still isn't your responsibility as much as hers. Has she approached you asking for financial support for your father, or something? How have you become involved in the situation?
I took over hands on care for my father 2 years ago when another sibling burned out. Sister with POA was depositing funds in a household account which I wrote checks from for utilities, incontinence supplies, groceries, property taxes and daycare.($3500/mo) There is no mortgage on the house he lives in and his income from a pension and social security is about $3500/mo. Now, because I know he had close to $1M in his IRA when POA was given to my sister, I assumed there would be enough to pay for pro caregivers at home ($6000/mo). I was wrong. He is receiving hospice care at home now but hospice doesn’t pay for caregivers.I work full time and am being told the well has run dry. Go figure. Now I’ve learned his taxes (which POA “took over” from Dad’s accountant) have not been filed in 3 years. Ugh.
1M over 8 years is 125k a year. If he got average SS income, it’s like $150K a yr income to have. As others have posted Hawaii is pretty high cost of living state. It can totally make sense theres no $ in assets now.
Usually DPOA is the elders son or daughter, by choice of the parent. Your dad did NOT choose you as his DPOA. So what’s the backstory on this? And why after 8 years are you now wanting to get involved?
You know the DPOA could well have spent all his $ appropriately as far as Medicaid is concerned & has done this deliberately over time to get him impoverished so he can become eligible for LTC Medicaid.
If SS or federal or RRRB retirement is their income, no need to file taxes. Those are tax exempt income. Any income not tax exempt has to be over a $ amount threshold for taxes to have to be filed. For under 65, the threshold is 12k. For over 65 it’s higher, just what varies by each persons filing.
If this DPOA filed taxes years 1-5 and stopped 3 years ago, I’d bet it’s cause dads $ isn’t requiring taxes filed. DPOA knows their stuff money wise and I’d also bet is methodologically spending down $ to get him impoverished for Medicaid.
If you have issues with how this is being run, then hire an atty for 5-10k or so and go to to court to file for guardianship.
I'm not sure if you could take her to court because she hasn't filed a tax return - you haven't actually sufffered any damage. That's a different matter from questioning her actions under the POA if you think she is stealing money, but as Ahmijoy says you need some evidence before doing that. Perhaps you could contact the tax department, tell them that no return has been filed, and leave it up to them to chase it.
I haven’t suffered any damage - yet. His estate suffers and there are 6 other siblings. Regardless, large sums of money spent from retirement account according to the IRS and nothing to show for it. Penalties etcetera. In-home pro care for the last two years about 6 hours per day. The rest is my brother, myself and my sons. All who have full time jobs. Sis with POA sell real estate but hasn’t sold anything for a looooong time.
How long has he been in skilled nursing? Where was he before? One million in eight years? What income is there? If all his income is Social Security there may be no need to file income taxes.
Her job as POA is to keep dad's information private unless the POA or trust states differently. Hawaii is very expensive living. If he had in home care at all over that eight years I would imagine in Hawaii it would cost in the area of $15,000.00 a month, maybe more. Nursing home? Maybe $18,000.00 a month.
Either way with that kind of expense a million could be spent quite easily. My mom had substantial assets and running the math she would have been eligible for Medicaid in roughly seven years. Getting old is very expensive especially if you are sick.
You will need to have rock solid proof that whoever this is, she’s appropriating Dad’s funds. Living in Hawaii isn’t cheap and I can see it costing 1M over 8 years, especially if there’s a big house to care for and all the expenses that come with it, plus whatever caring for Dad costs.
If you have suspicions, get an attorney. POAs are supposed to make their records available to anyone who wants to examine them. I had to.
When you ask her what has happened to the IRA money, what does she have to say for herself?
A question is not an accusation. You are not accusing her of anything. You are asking her a reasonable question and awaiting a sensible answer, that's all.
What do you know about the "old retainer" accountant? Did sister get rid of him for any particular reason - like his charges, for example, or other concerns about him?
You mention in your post that dad needs skilled nursing care. That he lives at home and you help take care of him.
Are other family members also caring for him? Has he had paid caregivers?
As POA does your sister say what her plan is going forward for dad?
It sounds like posters here can understand how the money could have been spent on his care if he was paying for care.
Is sister filing for Medicaid? Is your problem more that you, being a hands on caretaker, see that dad needs skilled nursing now, and sister wants you to continue caring for him?
We need more information to fully understand what is happening.
Your question was can you sue. You can always sue, but to what purpose? It could just be an expensive exercise and meanwhile dad still needs care.
Ask sister if she has filed for Medicaid for father. That might be a better conversation right now since she says there is no more money. Shift your focus.
You may not be privy to what your sister has spent the money on but you have every right to explain that you feel dad needs more care.
The application process for Medicaid will flush out if his funds can’t be accounted for properly.
Medicaid will want to review records for the past five years. Get on sisters side and help dad get the care he needs.
Good luck and let us know how things work out.
The expensive nursing care (at home) began only a year ago. Prior to that another sibling stayed home to care for him. There is no mortgage on the house and he still receive a pension and social security. Apart from utilities, home insurance, property taxes and groceries his health care costs were less than $50.00 per month!
Thanks for suggesting the Medicaid question. I will try it.
Your father's needing care and being unable to pay for it does have something to do with you, because he's your father and you want him to be looked after properly. But it still isn't your responsibility as much as hers. Has she approached you asking for financial support for your father, or something? How have you become involved in the situation?
Sister with POA was depositing funds in a household account which I wrote checks from for utilities, incontinence supplies, groceries, property taxes and daycare.($3500/mo) There is no mortgage on the house he lives in and his income from a pension and social security is about $3500/mo.
Now, because I know he had close to $1M in his IRA when POA was given to my sister, I assumed there would be enough to pay for pro caregivers at home ($6000/mo). I was wrong.
He is receiving hospice care at home now but hospice doesn’t pay for caregivers.I work full time and am being told the well has run dry. Go figure.
Now I’ve learned his taxes (which POA “took over” from Dad’s accountant) have not been filed in 3 years. Ugh.
If he got average SS income, it’s like $150K a yr income to have.
As others have posted Hawaii is pretty high cost of living state.
It can totally make sense theres no $ in assets now.
Usually DPOA is the elders son or daughter, by choice of the parent.
Your dad did NOT choose you as his DPOA.
So what’s the backstory on this?
And why after 8 years are you now wanting to get involved?
You know the DPOA could well have spent all his $ appropriately as far as Medicaid is concerned & has done this deliberately over time to get him impoverished so he can become eligible for LTC Medicaid.
If SS or federal or RRRB retirement is their income, no need to file taxes.
Those are tax exempt income.
Any income not tax exempt has to be over a $ amount threshold for taxes to have to be filed. For under 65, the threshold is 12k.
For over 65 it’s higher, just what varies by each persons filing.
If this DPOA filed taxes years 1-5 and stopped 3 years ago, I’d bet it’s cause dads $ isn’t requiring taxes filed. DPOA knows their stuff money wise and I’d also bet is methodologically spending down $ to get him impoverished for Medicaid.
If you have issues with how this is being run, then hire an atty for 5-10k or so and go to to court to file for guardianship.
Regardless, large sums of money spent from retirement account according to the IRS and nothing to show for it. Penalties etcetera.
In-home pro care for the last two years about 6 hours per day. The rest is my brother, myself and my sons. All who have full time jobs.
Sis with POA sell real estate but hasn’t sold anything for a looooong time.
Her job as POA is to keep dad's information private unless the POA or trust states differently. Hawaii is very expensive living. If he had in home care at all over that eight years I would imagine in Hawaii it would cost in the area of $15,000.00 a month, maybe more. Nursing home? Maybe $18,000.00 a month.
Either way with that kind of expense a million could be spent quite easily. My mom had substantial assets and running the math she would have been eligible for Medicaid in roughly seven years. Getting old is very expensive especially if you are sick.
If you have suspicions, get an attorney. POAs are supposed to make their records available to anyone who wants to examine them. I had to.