I have a rather unique situation that I could use some good input on. First off, I am my Fathers Durable POA as well as the POA for his Last Will and Testament. When we went to the Attorney's office to have him draft up all the documents, my Father's wishes were me first, then my sister and lastly my brother who is also on a separate document, the Caregiver for my Father.
I diligently watch all of my fathers accounts to assure that all of his bills are being paid, and nothing suspicious is happening with any of his 4 active accounts. Recently, my sister and I had a rather bad feeling that my brother who as I mentioned is my Dad's caregiver was possibly doing something wrong. He has a past history of gambling and running up debts in my mother and father's name. That was a few years back when my mother was alive, but for now, my sister and I know exactly what his financial situation is because of everything that was disclosed at the Attorney's office prior to making him the Caregiver. So let me jump to the actual situation at hand. My brother has the same name as my father, he's a Jr. Recently my sister and I ran a credit report on my Dad and found out that 5 new credit cards had been opened up in his name. Well after approaching my brother on this, since we knew it wasn't our 83 yr. old father who did this, our brother fessed up and said he did it. He racked up $40K in debt on the 5 cards. Now, we brought this to my father's attention and since his health issues have to do with memory conditions, he said "it's just money, we will resolve it" well as you can imagine that made my sister and I livid beyond words. My father and his brother who is several years younger 68, went to the Attorney and the Attorney who drafted up the original documents told my Father and Uncle to immediately remove me as the POA as well as my sisters name as 2nd in line.!!!! and obviously remove my brother from everything. The reasoning which I am having a hard time believing is that the Attorney indicated to my father and uncle that I could be held responsible for my brothers actions???? Although I guess I failed in some ways, I feel as though my responsibility was to watch my father's active accounts which I did and nothing was taken from those and everything was fine in that arena. Am I responsible for running occasional credit reports on my Dad to assure this his eldest son wasn't in fact doing what he was doing?? Anyway I sure could use some input on this as to what my liability is as it pertains to my brother's wrongful acts.
thank you
BTW, is your brother paying off the monthly bills he has accrued in your dad' name?