Sister wiped out all mother's cash accounts while POA. Any advice?

As long as your sister spent your mother's money on your mother's care and your mother's living expenses it was perfectly legal, yes. It was, in fact, the purpose for which your mother gave your sister power of attorney in the first place.

"A lot of cash." Mmm. What were your mother's care needs and how were they met?

It isn't unreasonable to expect your sister to provide an account of how your mother's money was spent. Only you have to be aware of the sensitivities involved in this. When a person has just devoted the last two years of her mother's life to running herself ragged caring for her, she's unlikely to be in a particularly co-operative mood.

What was your involvement in your mother's care? What sort of terms are you on with your sister?

Point of fact, when your dad died, mom likely got a "bump" in SS payments, but nothing like "both of their SS payments".

Where I live, nursing homes cost 12-15K per month.

In home care runs about 250k per year.

Do some math before you start thinking there should have been any money left.

Will probate be opened?

When your father died your mother did not get both SS, hers and his. She would get what was the larger one, in most cases it was the husbands and lose hers.

Since you do not state what 'A lot of Cash" was there is no way to determine if she could have gone through it or not.

I can say that I have 2 in homes, one AL the other MC and they are running down their cash at a face pace, these places are expensive. This year alone each has gone up $300 a month.

You might want to hire an attorney if you feel strongly that there was some hanky panky going on.

MiddleSister19, welcome to the forum. Please note as one ages it becomes more and more expensive.

When my Dad had caregivers helping him at home, it was costing him $20k per month, yes per month. Plus he was paying $12k per month as my Mom was in a nursing home. Those were big bites out of their savings.

As for pension money, was it an Annuity? Or a lump sum pension where your parents could take that money and invest it? Annuity is usually the same dollar amount over all the years, it doesn't keep up with inflation.

Chances are your parent's savings were all used up. And I wouldn't be surprised if your sister had to dig into her own pockets to pay for things that your Mom needed.

Please find out the whole story before accusing someone of wiping out funds.

What were YOU doing while your sister was caring for your mother for the past two years? My guess is Nothing, otherwise you'd know where the money was being spent and would never be insinuating her sister is a thief.

Your Sister was POA and caring for your mother the last years of her life. She may have had a care contract, and she was able to pay your mom's bills. If you were estranged from sister and mom as it sounds you may have, how are you aware of just how much money your Mom had? That money may have gone to care and caregiving over the two years. But a POA, which is what your sister WAS doesn't owe you any explanations of your Mom's assets and costs. Your sister is no longer POA. If there is a legal holographic will that is not notarized but has been accepted by the courts as a legal will then your sister may be--probably is--the executor of said will. That will will be filed as all must in public records in your county as is the law, and it is a document you can read. You may already have done as you say that will deems you have 1/3 of your Mom's remaining estate.
If you wish to engage a Trust and Estate attorney that attorney can quickly send a lawyer-letter to the executor of that will asking after your mother's estate, assets and beneficiaries. It is a claim, basically that says you believe yourself to be a beneficiary. Your questions can best be answered by buying an hour of an attorney's time. I wish you luck.

Depending on what you consider to be "alot of cash" it would not be surprising that your mother's care during the final two years of her life wiped out that cash and your sister did everything right as POA to make your mother's money last.

Middle, please please reread all the answers you have gotten so far. They are all accurate as to the reality of the horrendous cost of care.
Pay attention to what Barb and MeDolly wrote about the change for “income” once your dad died, this is mucho importante!! Moms $ got adjusted when he died…. mom no longer was $$$ of money but maybe 65% -70% of that. If you didn’t know this all the time since your dad died, it probably has been beyond frustrating your Sister as POA to have you understand that mom didn’t have $ like she used too.

As far as going after Sister for misappropriation, well without reams, like REAMS, of more info, whether or not your Sister as POA did her proper fiduciary duty for your mom is impossible to determine. To find that out now, you as a potential heir to your mothers Estate, would out of your own wallet, hire a probate attorney that does litigation. FWIW most probate guys do NOT do litigation work, so as a first step you call around to find a probate firm that does this and schedule appointments with couple of them to find one that you gel with and then pay them a representation fee for them to start their forensics.

On your own, you can contact probate court to see if a docket has been opened for your late mothers estate. If she died fairly recently, may not have yet happened. State laws super important in all this. Like some States allow for up to 4 years for probate to open. But it is on you or really anyone who is a probable heir or is a debtor or could have standing to monitor what happens in probate court. Like on you to go on-line to find PC filings, or look for Legal Notices in the newspaper, or actually go down to the courthouse or an annex to see what’s on the boards. If you cannot hire an attorney that is what you are going to have to do and then fill out whatever forms required to get copies of documents from the docket and pay for all. Then it’s on you to review what’s been filed to see if accurate and then you file challenges to contest if not. Ya gotta file forms very much in a specific format and by a certain timeline too, probate is very precise / rules driven. I’ve been Executor x 3 & absolutely no way I’d ever DIY it. 1st time had litigation & loads of fun, learned a lot. Biggest takeaways is that attorneys are the winners if litigation happens.

Personally imho unless your mom had in excess of $ 350K cash on hand/investments (plus whatever mo income) the last 2.5 years of her life, there is no money left. It’s all outflow. Even then, it would be cutting it close depending on where she lived. Avg time in a facility (IL, AL, MC, NH) is 2.5 years.

The Executor is in charge now. They get a short certificate that gives them the ability to work with debtors, the bank and other financial institutions. They can request the 2 years of bank statements to see what money came in, went out and to who checks were written too. Can request Credit card info. The Executor can ask the POA for an accting. I would also want a copy of the POA to see if there was any agreement that the Sister gets paid for being POA. If POA used Moms money for her personal use, she needs to pay the beneficiaries back. If she says she was being paid for Caring for Mom, she needs to prove there was a written agreement. Same thing if she claims Mom was paying her rent.

You can't accuse until you see where Moms money went.

If you don't really have an idea of how much "a lot of cash" actually was, you'll have to decide whether the cost of a probate attorney is worth what you think you'll get out of your sister. An attorney will run you about $350/hour and up. If Mom had a house to sell, then sure, it might be worth consulting a lawyer to see what your rights are since there wasn't a will. An unnotarized will is basically a holographic (or handwritten) will, and judges don't look too favorably upon those. Since you're a surviving child, you would get a percentage of the estate.

As others have said, care is crazy-expensive. My mother was in nursing homes for 2 1/2 years, and the final accounting was right around $215,000. There just may not be any money left, but your sister should be able to provide an accounting. If she can't, then that's pretty suspicious. Unfortunately, if she's spent the money, do you really expect her to be able to cough up the money she owes you and any other heirs? You'll owe the lawyer money for his time regardless of whether you can collect, so keep that all in mind.