POA ends when the principal dies, so can my siblings take money that is in Mom's acct and take over her trust?
I am DPOA but if she dies it ends. My siblings can get her money and get assets, including her trust she currently has. What is the best way to fix this?
As always, if you need to rely on legal advice, consult an appropriate attorney.
Do you have access to copies of the current trust and will?
After she passes, the successor trustee of her living trust takes over managing and distributing assets titled to the trust and the executor specified in the will takes over assets not in the trust and that don't have designated beneficiaries or joint account holders. AlvaDeer has described the process.
If she is still competent now, she can work with her lawyer to amend or restate her current trust or replace her will. Beneficiaries can be updated and joint accounts replaced with new accounts titled individually or to the trust.
Read your DPOA document to see if you have any ability to update her estate planning. Moving assets so beneficiaries change from someone else to yourself looks a lot like financial elder abuse and should be avoided. These abilities are usually only included to accommodate specific situations like special needs beneficiaries who might suffer if the DPOA can't adjust to changing benefit requirements.
If you believe you should be compensated for your work as POA or caregiver going forward, work with an attorney and payroll accountant to do it correctly. Retroactive compensation is problematic.
POA ends with death. Siblings can take money out of any accounts they are POD (pay on death) on when they present a death certificate to the bank. They can take anything they are the beneficiary or co-owner on. All other accounts will be frozen until the appointed executor of the estate (by will) or adminstrator (if your Mom died intestate without a will and administrator is appointed by the court) gets a new EIN for your Mom's estate. Then last bills will be paid, the remainder of the estate will be gathered by the executor and distributed as the will reads or as the state dictates if there is no will. Good luck.
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Do you have access to copies of the current trust and will?
After she passes, the successor trustee of her living trust takes over managing and distributing assets titled to the trust and the executor specified in the will takes over assets not in the trust and that don't have designated beneficiaries or joint account holders. AlvaDeer has described the process.
If she is still competent now, she can work with her lawyer to amend or restate her current trust or replace her will. Beneficiaries can be updated and joint accounts replaced with new accounts titled individually or to the trust.
Read your DPOA document to see if you have any ability to update her estate planning. Moving assets so beneficiaries change from someone else to yourself looks a lot like financial elder abuse and should be avoided. These abilities are usually only included to accommodate specific situations like special needs beneficiaries who might suffer if the DPOA can't adjust to changing benefit requirements.
If you believe you should be compensated for your work as POA or caregiver going forward, work with an attorney and payroll accountant to do it correctly. Retroactive compensation is problematic.
Siblings can take money out of any accounts they are POD (pay on death) on when they present a death certificate to the bank. They can take anything they are the beneficiary or co-owner on.
All other accounts will be frozen until the appointed executor of the estate (by will) or adminstrator (if your Mom died intestate without a will and administrator is appointed by the court) gets a new EIN for your Mom's estate. Then last bills will be paid, the remainder of the estate will be gathered by the executor and distributed as the will reads or as the state dictates if there is no will.
Good luck.
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