My brother is our mother's POA because he lives in the same town. I am down as successor because I live out of town. Our mother has two bank accounts, one with little funds in it with her name and my brother's name on that account. She has access to that account. The other account with more money, which is all our mothers has only my brother's name on it. Is this legal? I want my brother to put our mother's name on that count as well but he refuses. She has no access to this money. Just wondering if this is legal? Our mother does have dementia. And by me just being successor I think that I have no say in this matter. Do I? Because I want a say!
Which account does your mothers checks get deposited to? Do you know how the account was set up as to ownership of the money in the account? If a good amount of money is coming into the account without ownership being determined, the IRS may start to wonder. Talk to your brother about the hows and whys of the account.
If might also be that she agreed to allow him to assume full ownership of the account to reduce her assets for Medicaid qualification, but it still would be considered in any lookback period.
What does your brother say about why he apparently closed the one account and opened another in his name only?