We have durable power of attorney for my MIL, and my husband is a joint owner on her account at Bank of America. We did not go into BOA and have their own in-house power of attorney drawn up, thinking it was not needed. At the time we did POA, MIL was happy to sign.
We recently had to put MIL in a care home, she did not want to go, she has dementia (and other issues), is paranoid about everything. There's no way we could get her in to the bank to sign their internal POA now.
We need to endorse a check as her POA, but it sounds like we couldn't do this at BOA without having their internal power of attorney. I could call or set up an appointment to give them our POA and a letter we have from her neurologist saying she does not have the capacity to make her own decisions.
BUT I'm afraid I open up a can of worms if we look into this with BOA. Maybe they still won't take it, maybe they will require something we can't provide. What if they don't accept the POA we have, and lock her account once we show them the letter of incapacity and let them know we're handling her affairs?
What will BOA do if we let them know we are now acting as POA and she is incapacitated? What other options do we have?
FYI, this is all because we are selling MIL's car. She has said she wants to own that until she dies, even though she hasn't driven in 3 years. It's over $2K insurance every year, plus maintenance, plus a hassle for us to make sure to drive it ourselves enough that it doesn't sit there and rot (and we already had to pay to replace the battery once because we let it sit too long). AND her driver's license expires soon, and there's no way they'll renew it.
The car is in her name and my husband's - the dealership will let him sign as POA to sell it, BUT the check will be made out to both of them. We don't want to take it to her to sign if we don't have to -- we had planned on telling her the car was parked at our house safe and sound to avoid distress (and a meltdown). She hasn't been in the facility long and is still in a very upset state, demanding to be taken home. We don't want to add having to tell her we sold her car, which we'll have to do if she signs that check. I'm also a little worried she'd just rip the check up, and then what do we do? Her insurance has to be renewed in a couple of weeks, and we'd wanted to sell the car before then to avoid further needless expense.
(Pro tip: Never title a vehicle in two people's names with AND, even married couples, unless you don't trust your spouse. It can be a nightmare to sell if one or the other person isn't around to sign the title.)
Does your husband have online banking with BoA? Honestly, I'd just sign it with his signature and hers (plus "as POA"), deposit it, and see if they flag it. They may not.
Banks aren't as touchy about taking deposits -- it's the withdrawals that freak them out. They'll put a hold on any large check regardless of whether a POA signature is involved. If this one goes through and they give you a hard time at another time, you can always bring to their attention that they've accepted the POA already in the past. Tell them you're happy to bring in a copy for them and just make it really clear that it's active, they've already accepted it and your MIL is no longer competent to sign anything for them.
All that said, however, banks are notoriously obnoxious about accepting Powers of Attorney, and they want their paperwork, not yours. This is a good warning to others that when you get POA for a loved one, you also need to take them to their banks and other financial institutions and do theirs as well. My dad took me to Charles Schwab himself, told them he was placing me in charge of his finances, handed over the POA, filled out their paperwork, and it STILL took three months for them to give me control of his accounts. Dad had been gone for 2 1/2 of those three months, and had the stock market crashed with me unable to make any financial decisions, there'd have been hell to pay. Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Final point -- BofA is a TERRIBLE bank. My husband set up all our business accounts there, and their level of incompetency is absolutely breathtaking, regardless of the branch. This will be changed soon, thank goodness, when we move the accounts to a smaller, local business bank.
Also, regarding selling the car can they just send the money to her bank account? I has her name on it. I signed checks for my daddy I just signed his name on the back then put power of attorney on it. This should work. I have never worked with BOA. But this is how I dealt with Wells Fargo.
I’ve been on this forum a ,long time and BoA has had more than a few post on this. They are basically hostile to doing anything without either you having an account (with a balance over the amount of your elders account) there to move the funds into OR a court ordered legal document. Like Letters Testamentary from a Judge if elder has died so that you are now the Executor so legally have the power and a fresh federally issued IRS tax ID to move the money to a different bank account…. And even then they will foot drag and charge an account closure fee and certified check fee. They are the worst. ((The fabulous GardenArtist posted a few times on her BoA travails she dealt with after her Sister died (Sis had a BOA) and GA was a beyond savvy paralegal and a EA for a top white shoe law firm in Michigan and knows her stuff and BoA tried to pull this on her; I don’t know if her old post are still up on this forum.))
The durable POA does not require any letter from a doctor in order to activate it (though we do have one letter of incapacity from a doctor). My husband is a joint owner on her bank account as well.
This doesn't work out in many cases. "Theoretically" one should be able to. But that doesn't help when it doesn't work and it is too late.
Problem is when you have a notary public witness signatures that is ALL they are doing. They are witnessing a signature.
A solid lawyer-written POA does so much more. Examines the person doing the POA to be certain they are competent, and interviews them and individualizes it. And gets it signed. They stake their attorney's license on your documents legitimacy.
A MPOA or health care POA is miniscule in so far as what it does and who accepts it. It bears no resemblance to financial POA which gives you access to everything your loved one has, including the ability to sell his or her property if so written.
A Financial POA puts the assets of a citizen in the hands of another citizen. It must be a good, solid, legal and meticulous document.
As I said below, a bank is going to be very iffy about someone swooping in to say "Gee, mom is ill now so let's let ME have all her money to do as I wish with".
I would caution people for THIS reason: Once an elder becomes too incompetent to do a POA with an attorney it is too late. You cannot get a POA. Your opportunity to protect your elder and do it right, registering everywhere as their POA is gone. You need a POA that every banker's attorney will pass on and say "Wow! GOOD ONE".
Get the attorney. You will definitely pay for this. But you will pay more if you have to go through the court system and get a guardianship.
My father has Bank of America and I had to go through everything as described above.
Good luck to you.
I have not dealt with them for more than a decade.
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