I haven't been contacted or told that this was being done. the attorney has been told that all kinds of things that aren't true. from what I understand, I'm no longer P.O.A. of finances and my sister is! No one has informed me of any of this still today..
I have taken care of my mother for almost four years with little help from siblings with pay and with Mom's full understanding that we had this arrangement. I only got paid the money I needed with the understanding that if I needed it in the future Mom would pay plus some extra to make up what I didn't need at the time.
Everything is being changed by the attorney because my sisters, without any proof of any wrong doing on my part convinced him that I was doing something wrong.
there much more detail but in a nut shell that's what is going on and it is my understanding that without knowing any of this was going on or proof, I've been made out to be the bad guy and the P.O.A. has been changed.
Mom has no idea what is going on and doesn't understand what's being done because of the dementia.
I have proof that what the attorney was told about me is full of untruths I can be prove it. I also have witnesses seeing my mom being coached on what to tell attorney on the phone and this was done for hours.
If I understand correctly, the premise behind POA is that a person who is of sound mind and body appoints someone to act for them in case of becoming too unsound to do it themselves.
In order for this to be changed, the case should go before a judge who would hear both parties -- the POA and the challenger. I'm astonished that it's even legal to do otherwise.
If fees for a lawyer are a problem, perhaps your local legal aid agency can help. Meanwhile, I pray that this gets sorted out quickly with all parties blessed.
If you have that piece of paper that shows she has dementia then what the attorney and your sisters did was unethical and illegal. I can't believe that the attorney would change POA without speaking to your mother in person.
My mother had to meet privately with her attorney to discuss POA before he would do the documentation.
I hate to see this stuff happen. It's sad.
The real question here is whether Mom is "competent" in the legal sense. Dementia does not automatically make her incompetent. Can she understand the concept of allowing someone else to act on her behalf for financial transactions?
What the lawyer did is not unethical. A client who appeared lucid and competent asked to have a new POA designated. He did not have to check out whether the reason was valid -- he did not even have to know the reason. A competent person can change the POA on a whim, for any reason. He may have asked for a reason to get a sense of whether Mom understood what she was doing.
Your sister's ethical status could be questioned!
If Mom was competent to change the POA a few weeks ago, presumably she would be competent to change it back today (if she wants to).
If your mother was declared incompetent, then you are POA, and your sister has made an illegal move.
The law doesn't care about moral conduct...as we found out.
The older siblings had her sign her POA in the dining room of her house, I witnessed tat part against her will. She ended up initialing it in the lawyers office of a lawyer she had never been to, that her oldest child took her for lunch and it is his attorney
.
If you are taking care of your mother, the way to go is to have your mother declared incompetent and be appointed her guardian, so she can never again have her signature used against herself.
My friend and his 86 year old mother, who signed a POA while suffering dementia, for 3 years, by older siblings (while making us responsible for her medicine and food, especially using Exelon which was so expensive, the POA's never paid him back) that a guardian at litem was appointed when we went to court (because the family was divided and I was doing all the free care-taking) and the 86 year old now has a guardian from the state, the point is that once something like that goes into motion, at least they(other siblings) do not have power and the 86 tear old is still with us, but works with her social security check.
Once her residence was sold by the POA, thank God it was done under court supervision, the money is safe in a bank, instead of in their pockets.
They thought because they were the oldest siblings, they did not have to do the daily stuff, my friend ( who is the 61 year old baby sibling) would be stuck. As we all know care-taking without use of existing funds, can rob us of ours. And so we are broke asking the court to be paid.