My mom completed a DPoA naming me back in 1997. She kept it in a safe deposit box until it was needed. Now in 2017 Bank of America refused to honor it as it did not have the wording they use specifically in relation to bank accounts. Obviously we cannot update it to a newer form as she is now incapacitated. I need to be able to pay her bills and this is very frustrating.
My mom had me joint on her accounts so I've been lucky but one credit union told me otherwise they would have to verify any transactions with her under a POA
The B of A seems to want to make their own rules - thank goodness they are south of border & I will make sure they stay that way should they try to shoulder their way up here - it seems they are not well loved in the U.S.A. so that shows much!
We were told to either go to court and gain consevatorship and guardianship or get lawyer to to challenge them. All options just more money out of our pockets which I refused. We were told account is now frozen until mom dies at which time me and brother are beneficiaries. I'm still fuming as the acct has substantial amt of money.
I have ended up setting a new acct and will use money from sale of property to pay moms care and back bills.
You try to be honest with all the right paperwork and banks refuse to work with families nor disclose to their depositors that they require their own POA and may not acknowledge ones legal notarized DPOA. It should be part of their marketing materials to remind customers of this critical requirement.
Beware that SOME items CANNOT be forwarded. I, through my own local post office, temporarily (1-1.5 months, indicated on the form) forwarded mom's mail so that I could take over the bills, add all the info to the online bill payment system and have the billing addresses changed. That worked for all the usual suspects. However... some items WILL NOT be forwarded (note on some envelopes forwarding might be requested while on others it might specify NOT to).
The issues I have run into is that federal entities do not like your DPOA, new, old does not matter.
* The IRS has their own form (we have not gotten to them yet, but my question is going to be simple - HOW does an incompetent person sign your stupid form!).
* The VA has for 21-22a "APPOINTMENT OF INDIVIDUAL AS CLAIMANT'S REPRESENTATIVE" that you need to use (I send the DPOA in with the 'intent to file', wanting them to discuss with me - nope. Had to file this form, not the one they sent, 21-22, which assigns a rep from their org for her)
* Office of Personnel Mgmt (fed pension) - requires a specific dx, letter from doctor or affidavits before they allow us to intervene!
* SS - have not gotten that far yet... needed to get over #3 above
The pension took about TWO years, because previous doctor was USELESS despite pinging them AT LEAST once/month to provide the letter he promised. Changing docs helped, but we had to keep throwing it at the wall until it stuck!
I just confirmed today that the VA now has the 21-22a, so I think we're good there (they do not mail anything back for confirmation!)
But I digress - because we still did not have those items changed, I had to schlep on down to mom's condo to get the tax paperwork needed for this year. And behold! About a YEAR AND A HALF AFTER the TEMPORARY forward, those documents had that nice yellow banner stuck on it that stated - UNABLE TO FORWARD. I questioned this, since the forwarding was long gone, but got no satisfactory answer. Even better, a replacement refund check from the IRS did NOT have that sticky on it!
Imagine all this crap they give you, protecting the person's information, identity, whatever... but as I said to one place - if we decide to rent OR sell the place, YOU will be sending her PRIVATE information to STRANGERS!!!
Bottom line: although this may work temporarily, it is NOT a real fix.