How do you convince your mother to take you off of her checking and savings accounts if she cannot pay her credit card bills?

cmagnum is right - you don't need or want to be co-owner - commingling funds is a mess. Be sure however, that the financial POA is accepted by the bank - for example, Bank of America insists on their own paperwork for appointing POA- they will not honor other POA forms.

Your wife does not need to be co-owner of her mother's checking account or credit card since she is her Durable POA. Better check those credit cards!

My wife's name is on the checking account as a co-owner of the account. We think and hope that she is not listed as a co-owner on the credit cards. There is a Power of Attny with my wife listed, but we are not sure that the POA is specific enough...we have been told any POA needs to list all of the things that the POA can be used for - checking, savings, bills, etc. The big fear is that creditors will come for my wife since she is a co-owner on the checking account.

Exactly how is your name on your mother's credit card/bank accounts? I assume you are not co-owner and you do not use the credit cards? Frankly I would separate my financial business entirely from anyone else's - no commingled accounts. That is a huge mess if Medicaid comes into the picture later. I believe I would talk to the credit card company and find out just what they think your responsibility is and if they consider you a co-owner then demand to cancel your name.

Teamforest, if there is no money in an estate to pay creditors they go without. It is a risk that CC companies take when they extend credit.

CC by their nature are unsecured debt.

If there are any assets, then they get in line ahead of family, but if there are no assets they get nothing, the family is not responsible to the deceased cc debt.

We are facing a situation where a person paid their cc, but not enough income tax.

I agree. If your name is not on the credit card, it is not your debt.

Understand bllliveb, but what if there is nothing left (checking and savings at 0 and no other assets) in the estate? How then will the cc companies get paid?

Family members are never asked to pay cc bills. It is not their responsibility. The card companies want their cut from the estate (if any), and the executor would be responsible for paying all debt from the estate and/or sale of home, before anything is distributed to heirs. But the cc aren't going to go after adult children or any other relatives.