My parents' POA had long discussions with my parents' Attorney, shared emails, and reviewed documents....but it was all initiated by the POA, it was NOT at my parents' request.
Now they've received a bill for just under $2200, and the Attorney expects it paid.
However, they will not say specifically what was discussed, just "the POA" in general. They did itemize a few general things but again, none of it was at my parents' request.
Is this right, wouldn't they have to disclose more about the discussions, if they expect my parents to pay for the bill?
Your parents - assuming they are competent & cognitive - chose and signed off on whomever they selected as their DPOA. This is a legally binding document on their part. If the POA has been their POA for a period of time, it has established the intent of your parents. The POA met with their attorney regarding them and the bill was $ 2,200.00 which has to be paid from your parents assets.
$ 2,200.00 - although it seems high may not be IF there were a lot of documents done; or research needed on property ownership; or if mom or dad was married previously and has kids or property from marriage # 1; or either of them in the past inherited any real property that didn't go through probate….all this sort of issues really run up the meter on para-legal costs. If they have any assets in other county or another state, this can really run up costs.
Now after all this is done and paid for, your parents can choose to select a new DPOA. But if in any way they seem incompetent or doing this under duress by you, the POA can file for full guardianship. As LEP627 said, it will be very expensive and probably go to the current DPOA's favor.
You don't say who is POA, family, third party. It is complicated and legal. One mistake can botch up your parents' care options in the future. It is necessary to talk to an expert about these things. I venture that the fee is less costly than a mistake.
Because I want to represent my mother the best I could, I needed answers to many questions. I also needed to know what my position consisted of and what I should or should not do and how best to handle the position.
I quickly found out that this position is no laughing matter and requires an enormous amount of work. I must handle her Finances, Medical, House and Property. That may seem simple but it is not as each area is broken down into many different aspects. Finances include, paying bills, banking, caring for investments and making decisions to change them or leave them alone, balancing check books. etc. I have almost lost my mind with contractors, making repairs to her home, gathering bids, suing them for sub standard work, etc.
I do all of this and I was thrown into being her 24/7 caregiver as well with zero compensation.
So YES, your parents are expected to pay the attorney for their time and work to make sure that everything their POA is doing is on the up and up and legal. The POA is doing this FOR THE BENEFIT OF YOUR PARENTS!
Count your blessing that it is not you in this position...It is much more difficult than you could ever imagine!
Also, the POA is acting as an Agent for your parents, neither they or the attorney have to tell you anything about what they are doing. I was told that my mothers Trust was Private, just as a will would be and not to be discussed prior to their death.
In further talks with my parent they have said they are very angry at this amount of money being billed to them, I was only asking the question here, because I have literally no experience with lawyers--and IMHO I would not pay a bill that I myself did not initiate!
My parent is of sound mind, they do not need help with anything, they are able to handle their own affairs. This bill was not for anything at all that my parent could have anticitpated. To me it appears totally unethical.
My parent has said they will be "telling off" the sibling with POA, and clearly directing them that they are NOT to be contacting the attorney by themselves.
If it were me, and I have partial POA (medical) I would never DREAM of going to an attorney with some questions, and then sending the bill to my parents!
We are all adults here, I hope.
If your parents thought enough of your sibling to make them their financial POA then they must believe this person is of sound judgement. If they have never held this position, they were probably trying to find out what they needed to do or possibly they were handling a matter that your parents had overlooked.
Now why if they are acting for the benefit of your parents and possibly YOUR future inheritance, should THEY BE RESPONSIBLE FOR PAYING THE BILL? What do you plan on doing should you need to speak to the attorney regarding their medical care or future placement in a facility? If he should be needed by you, will you pay his bill out of your pocket or will you feel that it should be paid out of the estate?
Yes, the $2,200 sounds high but if that is what YOUR parents attorney charges then that is what it costs and YES, IT IS AND SHOULD BE YOUR PARENTS RESPONSIBILITY TO PAY.
You may not like it but YOUR responsibility is their MEDICAL CARE, your siblings responsibility is their FINANCES....you need to work together rather than causing a rift because once that starts it only gets worse.
There is no transparency with all these POA and attorneys. That is the problem--there should be information shared, especially if I am medical POA and driving the parents around to look at nursing homes (because the POA lives on the other side of the world). How am I supposed to do my medical POA responsibility in a fair & truthful way, when I don't know what the financial POA is doing?
There are some other mitigating factors (like the POA's spouse hinting around that the POA is going to be day-trading with my parent's money) which make the rest of the siblings extremely anxious.
There is just no checks and balances with having the POA out there, doing their own thing, having multiple phone conferences with the attorney, about who knows what. THAT is what I am getting at.
My parents were always very responsible and frugal, and deserve better than to have expensive bills landing in their mailbox demanding to be paid for stuff they knew nothing about.
I half expected somebody here would say, fire the attorney.
Transparency is not required of the POA. It would be, in my opinion, an extremely good idea, especially since the two of you should be working together on your parents' behalf. But not telling you about what he is doing is not illegal.
There is a very simple solution to this issue (or so it seems to me). If your parents are not satisfied with your brothers actions and regret appointing him POA, they can change that. Would you like to be the POA? Is there someone else who would be willing and your parents trust?
Who should be POA is your parents' decision.
She did me a d*** favor.
I am trying to be as pro-active as I can, to help my parents, but they are totally "stuck" on the idea that the oldest child "gets" to be the POA and Executor.
I do not want to force my ideas on my parents, I feel that would be wrong, so I am not going to go take them to another attorney and get the POA changed.
But I think it is time for me to hire my own attorney, so I can discuss what I can do to protect myself, and what reasonable actions I should do, to protect my parents from a possibly-nefarious POA.
It's really difficult now, too, since the POA's spouse has recently been diagnosed with terminal cancer, and (see my other question here on agingcare) they have told me (successor POA) to step into their shoes for the during cancer treatment and after she dies until he is all done taking care of that.
So now, I guess I have an "opportunity" to find out a little more about what all has been going on, in secret, and hopefully open my parent's eyes to what has been done, and double-check if that is really what my parents want.
Perhaps it is a godsend, that I can take a peek into what I dearly wanted to find out. I hope all is well with their finances and any other decisions or changes the POA may have enacted.