My father has since then passed. My mother is left. They had approx $400,000.00. Now my mom is close to Medicaid. They both have had medicare and humana throughout their illnesses and most of the medical has been paid excpet when they were in the donut hole. This money is now gone. Mom is 1-2 years away from medicaid, I know there is no leger for the expense of this money. My silbing did use the money for groceries, home improvements, her and her childrens care insruances etc. Mom stayed with both of us off and on before entering an assisted living 2 years ago. Mom still makes approximately 2,200 a month in retirement. Now my sibling wants me to sign dual POA's and mom has a dementia. I have some major reservations. I just do not feel the funds were used solely for my parents and wisely.
The problem, as others have pointed out, is that it is not up to your sister to appoint a dual POA, it is up to your mom. Is this something she agrees with, and is she still capable of signing a legal document?
When did your sister start using the Power of Attorney for money issues? Because if your parents were of clear mind 9 years ago to be able to give POA to your sister, then your parents were still able to make their own decisions for a while. Curious why now the need for a dual POA?
What home improvements were made? Since your Mom stayed with you and with your sister, that means the home improvements were made on her house. Right? Medicaid will go back 5 years to see how the $400k was spent. If it turns out that your sister was using some of it for herself, then Medicaid will consider it as a "gift" and subtract that amount of funding for your Mother.
Like Garden said "why" now.. Sister's been spending the money fine on her own...
Doesn't it strike you as strange that he/she now wants to share the responsibility, as the funds are getting low?
It's too risky, especially with no ledger - you could easily be blamed for your sibling's inappropriate management, if not fiduciary abuse. This is a responsibility that needs to remain solely with your sibling unless and/or until there's a full accounting and no issues remain of improper fiduciary management. Close to $400K is a lot to go through in 9 years, although the past 2 in an AL facility would accelerate the decline in financial assets.
Notwithstanding that issue, if your mother has dementia and isn't able to understand execution of a new DPOA, no trustworthy attorney would handle the request to prepare a new one.
You would also have to sign to agree to acceptance of responsibilities, so if a new DPOA suddenly appears with an alleged signature by you, you'll know there's been fraud involved.