My mother has dementia & my father died 12 mths ago. My father died 14 months ago and my sister was on my parents checking account. She never contacted his pension with a death certificate and she has been collecting his pension for the last 14 months signing his name on the checks sent to my parent's address. I found out last month, finally putting my mom in a nursing home and becoming her power of attorney. My mother has last stages of dementia and has no recollection of anything. There is no money left in the checking account, sister took everything. Now the pension company of course wants the pension money returned that was sent to my father/mother in the last 14 months. What should I do since I am my mother's power of attorney. My sister will not payback the pension money said she needed for care for my mom. Help I do not want to be responsible for over $5,000 in repayment since I had no clue this was happening.
Angel
Who was the executor of your Dad's estate? That is the person who should have reported his death to the insurance company.
Advise them as well that you only recently were appointed proxy under the DPOA and prior to that time had no knowledge of the theft (assuming that's true).
If you did have knowledge before you gained access to the records, you could be considered an accessory, possibly after the fact.
I'm curious - how did the pension holder find out - did you notify them?
The company managing the pension will get records from the bank with copies of the endorsement to confirm that it was your sister's signature, then contact her demanding repayment.
If she can't, or refuses, they may sue, depending on whether she has assets or is judgment proof (they could attach her assets and/or place a lien on real property she owns), but they probably also will notify local police for prosecution.
Proving fraud was committed relies an element of "intent", i.e., the person must have known he or she was committing fraud and intended to do so. Given that she presumably would have known your father had died, that element is in existence.
What the penalties would be I don't know; it may depend on the amount of total theft whether it's a misdemeanor or felony.
I recall this was the situation with my sister's state pension fund. I had to do some research and read the voluminous, difficult to read documents as well as get information from the state to figure out which pension option she had chosen.
It could actually have been that kind of situation, which I hope it was, for sister's sake.
When you write your letter, be careful to draw any conclusions; just state the facts, but I would also ask for copies of ALL executed documents relating to your father's pension.
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