POA wants me to accept used motor home as my share of estate. Any advice?
My sister is the POA for our parents and they are running low on funds. Sis has the "brilliant" idea that, as part of my "inheritance" I should accept an old motor home. She says, I can sell it and make money.
Furthermore, she says, I MUST take this deal, or I won't get anything.
My problem with this scenario is, first of all I don't want the motor home, have no use for it whatsoever.
Secondly, since the title to it is in my parents' names, and I don't own the POA, how in the world would I be able to sell it, legally?
Third, and maybe most important, what if my parents die tomorrow, and there is still lots of money left in the estate, why would I want to sign off on a share of cash, for an old motor home?
Overall, the big picture seems to me, Sis wants ME to do the work of getting rid of motor home. When my parents sell their home, the realtor said it will sell quicker if there isn't this motor home sitting alongside the driveway.
I told Sis, have some RV specialist take it off their hands, for a small fee it can be hauled away, I don't know for sure, but that would be waaay easier than selling it ourselves.
12 Answers
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If you were to take it now, it would not be an inheritance, but a gift, according to the IRS. Gifts carry gift taxes and income taxes. Anything you receive while they are still alive is NOT an inheritance. On the other hand, stuff you get after they die is not as taxable.
Your parents decided what they wished to leave their children when they made their wills (if they did).
Your sister as POA has no authority on her own account either to change their wills, or to dispose of their property under the terms of that will and certainly NOT while they are still alive.
Suppose (God forbid) that your parents were to pass away tonight. In that case your parents' executor, who may or may not be your POA sister, would dispose of their property according to their instructions. If they haven't made wills, they would be intestate and it would be "a reet b*ggers' muddle" as they say in Yorkshire - but it would STILL be the case that POA would be an irrelevance.
The point is, the person with POA has no business meddling in the terms of the will or the distribution of property. If your parents need the cash, do as Pam S says, tell your sister to sell the asset and use the money for their welfare. That is her job as POA.
My Dad had an old conversion van that was on its last legs, and he was going to sell it to my son for $300. My son paid to have the title transferred, purchased insurance on it, and then drove it for a single weekend before a bolt in the steering sheered off (a known problem w/that year/model of van, but never recalled by mfg.) and it was undriveable and not repairable. He junked it, having never paid Dad for it - and Dad said to consider it paid for, because he didn't think it was going to break down immediately like that. Since Dad had *just* entered a nursing home at that time and was just beginning Medicaid coverage, we had to go back to the junkyard that took the van and get a written statement from them indicating the vehicle had a zero dollar value - scrap only - when they picked it up. *THAT'S* how picky Medicaid is. Dad ended up with $350,000+ in medical bills and they were quibbling over a zero-dollar-value vehicle. (I understand why, just trying to illustrate the point.)
The person who pays the Medicaid penalty for giving away your parents' assets is your parents. I wonder if your sister understands that.
In any case, as others have said, she has no authority as POA to bargain about future inheritance.
Help her if that is appropriate, but just say no to the "deal" she has no authority to make.
I can't afford a lawyer, but I recall the Will saying that everything is split equally among the children (after both parents die).
So essentially, Sister is telling me, to accept this and forgo any little bit of cash that may, or may not, come my way when both parents pass.
I feel that all proceeds from the motor home should go to parents' care. And I don't have any extra time to help sell it. There's a reason people are paid on commission to sell used RV's.
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