My husband is POA for his mother who is severe Alzheimers. Arrived to my mother in laws home last weekend to find his sister and boyfriend stole all of her china, streling silver flatware collection and sterling silver serving pieces. This happened in central PA. Value is over 15 thousand.
SHE HAS COMMITTED THEFT!
I hope that Mom's assets are sufficient for her care the rest of her life even without the sterling. But you know how extensive the care needs for someone with dementia can be, and how expensive it will be to provide care if she lives a long time. As POA it is your husband's responsibility to act in Mom's best interest and do everything he can to preserve her assets for her needs.
I think he should notify his sister of his obligation as POA, tell her he will have no choice but to report this as theft, but he'd prefer to avoid that and will give her two days to return the items so he isn't obligated to report it.
I'd try very hard to be matter-of-fact about this business obligation and keep it out of the name-calling emotional arena. "Sis, I understand you might feel entitled to Mom's china and silver. I hope that is how it turns out when the will is read. But it is my legal obligation, blah, blah, blah." POAs are NOT entitled to save assets for inheritance by themselves or others. Their duty is to ensure that the principal's current and future needs are met. If that means something that was "promised" to a potential heir has to be sold, so be it.
If Sis didn't want her Mom's GI bleed treated she probably will try to fight giving up the china and silver, too. But your husband's legal obligation is clear. He needs to report this theft to the police. It would be a generous gesture on his part to give his sister the opportunity to return the assets. But if he doesn't get them back he cannot just shrug this off.
It just occurs to me that, if my mother were living alone and had people coming in to help her, possibly unsupervised and possibly not always the people who were rostered to do it, I'm not sure how happy I'd be to leave valuable items sitting around the house either. Before you call the police, check that these things haven't simply been moved to a place of safety. Or that's what I'd do, anyway.
$15,000 is an awful lot of china and silverware: it's not like the sister can have been hoping your husband wouldn't notice.
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