Legal opinion - POA

I have an acquaintance whose father recently passed. It's a bit of a long story but the father was abusive and the son moved far away but talked with his dad on the phone probably once a week in spite of the unresolved resentment.

A few years back a couple moved into the condo his father was living in and became friends after a fashion. As he grew more feeble and his mind started slipping the lady started picking up groceries for him and running other odd jobs. At some point she convinced him to sign over his Power of Attorney to her. Once he did that she changed the beneficiary on his IRA (and whatever else he had by way of money in the bank) to herself (and her husband).

When his father died this guy still thought he was the owner of the bank accounts and beneficiary of any IRA funds. After a few weeks he started looking into closing the estate to discover that this good neighbor now had possession of all that and had no intention of sharing.

This is about all I know about the situation. He was pissed at first but figured he hadn't been that close to his dad anyway, so maybe it was just well enough. He's disposed to just let it go because he doesn't think it's worth him getting into a messy lawsuit.

Is there legal recourse? I'm not disposed to encourage him to poke at this if it's only going to end up in frustration for him.

 

Sounds like that bitch needs to go meet up with a gator.

 

Sounds like the father got taken advantage of and swindled out of his life savings by con artists.

I'd suggest an investigation.

Robbery is robbery.

 

The POA died when he did. Depending on the state laws the will defines everything if there was one. He needs a blood sucking lawyer.

 

This.

 

POA is no longer valid, but if the person had everything signed over into their name, it's likely still in their name and 'owned' by them now.

What you may be able to do is have the courts rule that the person was 'not in clear mind' when the POA was signed, and invalidate anything that was done. I had this with my grandmother. She had dementia. She was trying to get a will made, but even if she did, she wasn't right in her mind and the court would have thrown it out.

 

i've no clue on the legality of things but why does your buddy feel entitled to any thing of his father's? This sounds like an emotional thing, like Dad screwed him one final time or something. Unless its a fuck ton of money I'd probably just wash my hands of it.

 

In what state did this occur?

 

Is there any way to know in any compelling way what this guy's father would have wanted? And that he wanted his son to be his beneficiary? Turning over a POA and what resulted from it in retrospect is very difficult. And it sounds like your friend's father was a difficult person.

Is it simply a galling but not entirely unexpected end? What does your friend want. Money? If so, he will earn every penny. Anything else, he has to give that to himself. Move on.

 

The person holding a Power of Attorney for someone else is required to act in the best interest of the the person whose property they are administering. If the changes were made without permission or knowledge of the dad, then it's fraud and theft.

Even though the POA has no value once the grantor dies, if the agent stole the assets, its still a crime.

 

Isn't this exactly what happened with Stan Lee (Marvel)?

 

I've been wondering about this type of thing a lot ever since I learned about guardianship. There's a whole industry of shitbags in this country and it's completely legal.

 

Yes well I would have things (meaning legal things, wills, POA, etc) locked up like Fort Knox prior to having your loved ones exposed to any outside caregivers, on an ad hoc basis, regularly in home, or in a care home. It's fucking sickening, but there it is.

 

We only know half the story.

Seems the friend has a better attitude to this then the local peanut gallery....

 

Sounds like the neighbor was more of a help to the father than the son that now wants his money. Where was the son at during his fathers decline to death? Maybe the caregiver had a very frank discussion with the father and he gave her his assets willingly. Just playing devils advocate. Two sides to every story and the truth is somewhere in the middle as the saying goes.

 

Before we go too far into this, how much cheddar are we talking about?

 

Once the elderly are in the position of not being able to care for themselves, the are easy prey. A grifter can spot that weakness in an instant. I was the PoA for my mother and made darn sure no stranger got anywhere near her without me, very visibly, on guard duty. I was so aggressive in this approach that both her neurologist and her attorney felt someone else should have the duty, as they felt I was overly concentrating on protecting her assets and that it gave the appearance that I cared more for my inheritance than her well being.
I saw others get taken advantage of, I didn't care what the "appearance" was.
Let it be a lesson. There are many wretched creatures out there that won't hesitate when they see mental weakness that they can exploit for their own gains. If you can't be bothered to step up for your elderly parent(s) when the time comes, you will learn a harsh lesson once the dust has settled.

 

.....or a tiger.

Anyone got some sardine oil?

 

Had it happen to a friend's fil to the tune of over $500k. Housekeeper/caretaker.

They were not able to recover any of it.

 

The guy in question is someone I know through another online community. There's a lot more to this story that I'm not going to include here because it could quickly explode into dungeon material. I don't think this is about a king's ransom from what I gather. The guy doesn't really need the money but he's upset at how all this played out in the end.

I will say that (according to him) his father raped a friend of his who was only 14 at the time. His father served a prison sentence and the son went into foster care for a couple of years. Mom had died years before. Son lost contact with raped friend (parents didn't want him around). He went into foster care, finished growing up, got a career going, finally re-established a tenuous relationship with dad over the phone and they talked about once a week. By then they lived on opposite sides of the country and son had no desire to go visit.

Along comes this neighbor who works her way into the old man's life and starts calling herself his "adopted daughter." The rest is pretty much what I've already shared.

He seems to have made peace with it and is willing to just let it go. I'm the one who just really struggles with letting a scammer get away with it. But it's his business, not mine. I'm probably not going to prod him to take further action anyway, but I just wanted to know if anyone had insight into what would be involved if he tried.

He did mention that after another attempt he may have finally located the raped friend and is considering making contact with her. It's been decades.