My elderly father is now unable to live alone and hospitalized. Since I have POA, I have been paying his bills and sifting through his finances. I am trying to make his money last as long as possible for him. However, I have found in the past few years multiple times that family members have taken large sums of cash from him. I have even found where a neighbor lady was getting money from him. This makes me so angry! I am one of three children. I have always been financially independent and never needed money from a parent. I understand people might get in a bad situation and need help, but this is just plain robbery. Taking thousands of dollars from an 80+ year old man is theft! The hard part is that now he is hospitalized and is having problems with his mind, I'm afraid they are going to try to take his every last cent. I am considering hiring an attorney, but I'm not sure if there is anything that can be done. I feel so helpless trying to protect my father from his own children. Any advice is greatly appreciated.
I would add that it wouldn't hurt to add fraud alerts to his credit files. I file the 90 day alerts every 3 months. You are entitled to one free copy of his credit file annually. The acknowledgements which you should get from each of the 3 credit reporting agencies will have code numbers for the alerts.
Get them and go over them well; if there are hands in the till, you never know what else they may have asked for, including co-responsibility for loans. Best to find out now and address it.
This is so trying - your father going into hospice, financial abuse....what a challenging time it must be for you. I hope you do take some time to unwind and help ensure there is some calm to your days.
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