Bank of America refuses to accept a stale DPOA. What can I do?

Well, at least temporarily, you can possibly set up online banking and use it on Mom's behalf. You might need an eldercare attorney to help at this point though. There may be a way for you to make the changes needed, as POA, but you have to be careful. If you have representative payee (which is always separate from POA) for her social security check you could try changing banks.

This question comes up from time to time with various large banks as being the problem. It deals with the fact that all the solutions the bank offers seem impossible because the principal is usually already incompetent when the issue comes up.
I did a search on this site and found this article which basically leads one back to the attorney. There were many other threads. Just search for Bank POA. I'm glad you asked the question as this article stated the POA needs to be renewed every five years. Who knew?
https://www.agingcare.com/articles/what-to-do-when-bank-rejects-poa-178641.htm

BoA would not accept my mother's newly notarized POA and instead insisted on having their own version executed. Luckily, we learned this while Mom was still of sound mind and able to sign. My version had been prepared by an attorney who specializes in wills, POA and such so it was correct but BoA wants their own signed.

I think you could try having a letter written to the bank by the lawyer who wrote up the POA explaining that this is a legal document and unless they want to go to court over it to honor it.

B of A demanded an Amendment to Mom's will, circa 1990s. Her attorney sent 3 documents that, submitted together, met legal requirements. B of A still drug it's feet. I directed the Bank to deposit the remaining two thousand dollars into the Estate checking account. Another account somehow did not get closed before Mom's death. It has $150.00 remaining! Though I asked for both accounts to be closed at the same time, the smaller is still outstanding. I have to resubmit everything for that account! Try to find an employee who will accept your phone calls and take charge of the case. Some things I had to notarize, copy, and mail 2 or 3 times. I faxed several documents as I was afraid they would get lost. A B of A employee finally said she would help throughout the process. It's still slow, but at least some progress has been made.

From my limited experience, they use any excuse they can not to have to accept a POA.

I guess I am not the only one who hates dealing with Bank of America. All I wanted to do was change my father's address to mine so I could get his statements (and I am POD on them already). I took him to his regular branch and they refused....we had to go through corporate. Seriously...for an address change? I called corporate and they sent me more documents than you could imagine. I filled them out and it still was not good enough. I gave up. All I wanted was an address change. When I called SSA they changed his address no problem. Luckily the bulk of his money is in another account but his SS gets direct deposited there and he has a small annuity with them.

I've heard that bank of America or boa is a nightmare to deal with. As much as I can help it, I won't ever bank with them four that reason.

As mentioned here, go ahead and set up automatic online bill pay, but only from your end. This may be a perfect permanent solution. I've been using it for years and I won't turn back, ever.

Another thing you can do is go bank shopping and when you find one that will accept your DPOA, then just change banks.

Finally, you can also speak to an eldercare lawyer and take the paper with you that your mom filled out. See what the eldercare lawyer says and whether or not you're now incapacitated mom can still maintain her DPOA. If not, you may need to go for guardianship if she's incapacitated enough that she needs it

If Bk of America wants a legal document updated they need to provide legal services at no charge or nominal charge to do it. They should also provide a cover letter explaining their reasoning.

We handled this already with my mom the first time she was in the hospital. She put me on her accounts so I could always access the account to pay bills. Much easier. Sorry they're giving you a hard time.

I echo that BOA is a pain in the A*%* to work with. I finally had to go to an attorney to close out my Mother in law account of under $20,000 when she died (I was the Executor of her estate). I filled out all the same papers that the attorney did but it took a letter from the attorney to get action. It is just another step we learn about as Caregivers that we never thought we would have to know. I am done with them and pulled my one account I had with them to another bank.

My parents both became incapacitated and I had to take over their finances. BofA was a absolute nightmare, whereas Wells Fargo was extraordinarily helpful. The main thing you need are letters from two doctors attesting to your mother's incapacity. Many institutions require separate documents generated by their legal counsel. Our trust attorney said that BofA is the worst bank to deal with when someone is incapacitated or dies. I ended up closing that checking account entirely. They even made that difficult.

Thank goodness my Mom banks with Wells Fargo and Frost. She put me on her accounts right after my Dad died. I've had to put the DPOA in place because she is no longer capable of taking care of her affairs. I did get a letter from her Neurologist that required 2 physician signatures stating the DPOA should be honored. Once I took that piece of paper along with the DPOA I haven't had any issues. Both banks were easy to work with.

It's posts like these that make me eternally grateful that my mother put my name on her bank accounts when she moved into my home. I do have DPOA documents for other institutions as needed, but I can just write checks from her account to pay her bills since the account is technically a joint account now.

I'm wondering how having money in a joint account with a non-spouse might affect an elder's being able to qualify for Medicaid if needed. Our bank in Indiana has allowed me to be an authorized signer on an account, even though my husband is the account owner. I'm also POD.

A POA should last the lifetime of the person who requested you to be the POA unless they specifically had requested an end date to the POA. POA is no longer valid when the person who requested you as their POA dies. Being incapacitated does not dissolve a POA and I am not sure what a stale DPOA is. I too had to deal with BOA and when all was said and done am glad they are out of the picture. I was listed as an owner of the accounts along with my Mother who is still alive. I wanted to close the accounts for simplification and it was an all day affair to get it done. They finally made me drag my invalid Mother from the home to "verify" that she really wanted the accounts closed. As an owner I should have been able to close any account I wanted to, but they kept requesting new and different things. As I said all day affair. I have closed other accounts to simplify things and had no problems. Worse bank ever!

People who have a hard time with BoA should be posting on their website and alerting as many people as possible so accounts can be moved to another bank.

I don't like to deal with Bank of America, and I didn't like dealing with its predecessor outfit, MBNA. I worked for them part-time after being dismissed from Cigna when Cigna was sold to another outfit. Former MBNA was a quaker church type of environment, you could not talk to your buddies except for comfort breaks. That's the way all corporations should run except there was something about MBNA that rubbed me the wrong way

Sounds like we need to avoid Bank of America. The validity of a POA document depends on the requirements of your state law. Just because a bank demands their own policy be followed does NOT mean they can circumvent the state law. Once a POA is signed and vallid, it should not have to be "updated" or "renewed". Depending on the state law, the POA is effective until the principal revokes it. It is "durable" because it continues to be effective even if the principal becomes mentally incompetent. Once the principal is mentally incompetent, the only way to set aside a POA is for a court to make an order setting it aside. That would happen only after a hearing on the matter.If the bank still won't comply with the law, a trip to court may be in order. Then, change banks or move the funds to a credit union. Be sure to research the financial institution's policies before depositing money there. Refuse to do business with any that demand a different POA from the
one required by law.

Do you have joint bank a/c's? If not, just pay it out of yours....and then keep record of it. bureaucracy shit gets on my nerves

You should probably get an elder law attorney retained to handle this issue.

GET A NEW BANK! - there's lots of them - don't put up with that sort of high handedness - just get a new bank with account that shows it's for her so any interest doesn't go to you or on your taxes & bank can help you with this - then write a check to clear it out for deposit only to new account - vote with your dollars & your dollars just walked out of their door - no Bank of America here & I'll stay away from them in future

Write to her lawyer stating all efforts you made so that keeps everything above board - copy any siblings if you feel that is a good idea so they can never say you snuck around behind their backs - get one close to where you live/work so you can go in easily 

What I did with mom was her bank was different from mine so that all items from that bank automatically is for her use - I even got a separate credit card to keep track of purchases for her & that is paid off automatically every month - it is even a different colour so that makes it easy

A long time ago, when mom was not diagnosed with dementia (and my father had passed away), she put me on as part owner of her checking account. Now that Mom is in her middle stages of dementia, I cannot tell you just how wonderful it worked out that I was already on her account. My name was even on the checks. Something for others to think about. I did, tho, have a little bit of difficulty at the bank when I wanted to get them to acknowledge that I had power of attorney as they (Chase) wanted their own proof. Fortunately, the only addition they wanted was a litter from the doctor at the assisted living facility stating that Mom could not handle her own financial affairs because of her condition. And that didn't cost anything but time. I can see why, tho, that these institutions are so firm with their requests. Would not like to be a senior and having someone fool me into thinking that signing my name on a document would facility their taking care of me....when in actuality, they just want my money.

BofA was a pain for us for my MIL. We had another account in a small local bank that was more accommodating and transferred online out of BofA. Nothing illegal just bypassing BofA

Are u on Mom's account? If so, pay her bills and POA with ur name. I never had to get permission from the bank. I did need to prove POA to cash in her CDs. I did have Prudential tell me that they wouldn't except a POA more than 60 days old to cash in some shares. It ended up that I needed to have a lawyer, on his letterhead, say that the POA was still good.

Unfortunately, with a twenty-year-old POA, the bank is nervous, thinking it may have been revoked in the intervening years. At this point, you will most likely have to hire an attorney and go to court to seek appointment as the conservator of your mom.

I would contact your state attorney general, too, to let them know the difficulties B of A is causing you. Sometimes a letter from the AG makes things happen quickly, especially if an investigation of their practices is a possibility. Our AG in Minnesota is very consumer protection oriented and I like having her in my corner when necessary. Thankfully, I don't use B of A, nor does my friend for whom I am POA.

As a caregiver remember the rule, "keep things easy for you," & this means everything. It's crucial to have all legal documents in place, correctly, from the start of the journey you are on. Consult with an elder attorney, one that you trust, & do things right, hopefully the first time. If things change, have his # on speed dial to get any questions answered and/or visit him again for assistance. There may be an expense involved, but, in the long run less stress for you down the road. Think about the overall piece of mind, that all is right, that makes it all feel better. Blessings 🌸

Quick lookup online yielded many entries, and a quick scan shows they basically all say the same thing - they do NOT expire. Here is one example from http://www.haddletonlaw.com/articles/What-you-need-to-know-About-Durable-Powers-Of-Attorney.shtml

"How Long Does the Durable Power Last?

The durable power of attorney lasts until the death of the principal or until the principal revokes the power.

In spite of statutes in many states which specify that durable powers of attorney do not expire by reason of time, many financial institutions are hesitant to accept durable powers of attorney which are more than three or four years old. Because of this, we prefer that clients re-execute durable powers of attorney every three years."

That said, some places (your BoA and probably many of those big banks that cause us so much grief) want to use their own. In our case, we found that the FEDERAL government does not honor the DPOA. So, the IRS has their own form... The VA requires the person to sign to have a representative, the Federal Pension needs a specific letter (magic words!) or affidavits from others... Social Security has not been approached yet, but now that we have the magic doctor letter along with our DPOA (2006), we may be able to get past them!
Anyway, back to your issue. The problem we ran into was with Discover - they allowed, with a DPOA copy, change of billing address, contact point, etc, but refuse any online banking (we can check things by phone though). Older DPOAs and POAs probably do not cover/have the wording for online access. However despite having mother sign a letter granting online access, NOPE. Even better, I just had to call them because they are required (federal) to get us to update our "profile" online and of course this CANNOT be done!
No one else gave us any problems in changing billing address and contact information. BCBS had to be updated so that they would not override the Caremark Rx mailing, but still sent statements until we moved mom. I called them and they made the changes, no problem.
Although the quoted section I posted talks about doing a re-execute every few years, this sounds like just a money grab. A DPOA that is 20 years old, I can see that some might fight that, but if you could back it up with location, doctor letter, something... I would push back on them. If ALL you want to do is get the bills and pay them, they should *NOT* be fighting you. I can certainly understand the CC not wanting to grant online access, to a point, but not from their arguments. Now, if this is her bank account, and you are not list on it, you are likely going to have to hire an attorney to request Conservatorship via the courts. We were lucky that mom put us all on the account, and was still lucid enough when I took her to the bank to change over everything. Until we made all the billing changes AND made old paperwork at home disappear, she would try calling the bank to get checks. That, thankfully, is all behind us now.

Anyway, If it is credit card payments, loans, or something along those lines, you could push back and explain you just want to be sure her debts ARE PAID. If it is her account and you are not joint, you are going to have to contact an attorney, elder is best.

to lkdrymom:

You stated: " Luckily the bulk of his money is in another account but his SS gets direct deposited there and he has a small annuity with them."

Our mother had two bank accounts, one more local to make it easier to access cash when needed. She had her SS direct deposited. When we were taking over the finances, an attempt to change deposit was made via SS - because mom's hearing is bad, she could not hear well enough to understand the woman was asking for ok to talk to me. I could hear the whole other end of the call from 3+ feet away and told mom they just want you to okay talking to me... that's when SS got me back on the phone and rudely told me we would have to go to the SS office and hung up.
Well, I actually found out that you can REQUEST direct deposit via the OTHER financial institution. They (credit union) were a little perplexed (they probably do not get many requests for this!), but I showed them the documentation and made them do it! Basically, when the direct deposit request goes through from them, it automatically stops the other deposit. Once the deposit was made at the CU, I took mom to the bank and closed the account (I was NOT joint on that account, but she was not as bad off at that time - not really paying attention, but they did not give me any grief.

As for the annuity, if it is small, perhaps leave it alone. Of course, from what others have written, it will likely be a nightmare again if/when your dad passes getting that from them! If there is any kind of existing trust account for other assets (house, any savings, etc), you CAN move it there with DPOA. Just use the force, initiate from the "light" side, to defeat the "dark" side!