What happens when a principal disagrees with an agent?

taimedowne: Congratulations on your resignation as agent.

An agent cannot override the choice of the principal in Florida until the principal is determined to be incapacitated by a court. Often the only way to override is by establishing a guardianship.
david

Thanks for all the responses. I resigned from POA. I don’t care what happens next but I am glad I won’t have to deal with it.

Your Mom has a Dementia according to your profile. Like said you have to read the document. If it says immediate, your DPOA was in effect when Mom signed it. If it says you need a formal diagnoses from one or more dictores saying she is incompetent of making informed decisions then its called Springing POA.

If Immediate, you are now in charge. Mom is not competent of making informed decisions. My Moms was immediate and my involvement was never questioned.

Springing to take charge, you need that formal diagnoses for POA to become effective. But even then, you know the person cannot make decisions in their best interest. Plus a person who is this far into their Dementia should not be living alone.

If you are the PoA then read your document to see when your authority becomes active. Is is durable or springing? If springing, how many medical diagnoses of imcapacity does it require? Often principals designate 2.

If the criteria is met, and the document states you have authority in the area of disagreement, then you should be able to legally act in her best interests.

If she has capacity to where she can revoke your PoA then you are out of the picture. If she has enough capacity then you won't be able to acquire guardianship. Pursuing guardianship through the courts is very expensive and you will have to prove her incapacity before the judge.

If she revokes all PoA and doesn't reassign a new agent, then becomes cognitively incapacitated, then the county can acquire guardianship.

What you should be doing is taking to a social worker (not just a lawyer), BUT you told us the social worker is on your mom’s side. The social worker told you to return full financial access to your mom, because she’s mentally complement.

Since the social worker is against you, it’s not easy.

You must see a lawyer.

In other words, if there’s no POA, people will sometimes go for guardianship because they don’t want the State to become guardian and take away all the money/assets.

A guardian has the final word. A conservator also has the final word, for example over finances.

I have several friends who became guardians (in all cases, the parent had obvious, severe dementia, no doubts). Guardianship is normally only sought by people whose parents have A LOT of money. Most people don’t want the ENORMOUS hassle that comes with being a guardian (you must account for everything; show everything to the State about once a year; all the paperwork).

My friends wish they had never needed to become guardian. They became guardian because there was no POA.

You already have POA.

If your mother is of sound mind, yes she can revoke your POA. That’s her decision.

But by the way, we already explained this to you in your original post 2 July 2023…

Lots of people explained to you, how it all works:

https://www.agingcare.com/questions/how-do-we-control-moms-finances-482365.htm?orderby=recent�

Guardianship is very costly. The principal can protest against having a guardian, and will win if they’re deemed competent during the guardianship court hearing.

If during the hearing, they’re deemed incompetent, it’s not guaranteed that you OP will be given guardianship. The court will look at whether you should be guardian and also whether the principal wants you as guardian. If the court, regardless of the principal’s wishes, feels that you shouldn’t be guardian (for example, the court might ask about your financial situation. If you’re very poor, if you have your own home, factors that might tempt an agent to steal from the principal)…If the court feels you shouldn’t be a guardian, they might ask about another family member, or the State becomes the guardian.

A guardian has FULL CONTROL over the person:
medical and finances.

A conservator has generally control over only finances. Why? Because as I explained in my post below, a person can be mentally competent in one area (like health decisions), and not in another area (like financial decisions).

When principal and POA disagree (this happened to me too)…

If the principal is of sound mind:
Principal has the final word

If the principal has mild dementia (diagnosed, but mild):
Principal might still have the final word, depends on how mild

If the principal has mild dementia (undiagnosed):
Principal might still have the final word, depends on how mild

If the principal has severe dementia (diagnosed):
Agent has the final word

If the principal has severe dementia (undiagnosed):
Agent has the final word. Since there are disagreement between POA and Agent, get a diagnosis. This can be shown to banks, so they know you now have the final word.

Lastly,
If the principal has mild dementia (undiagnosed or undiagnosed):
Principal might still have the final word, IN SOME SPECIFIC AREAS (for example, mentally competent to make medical decisions, but mentally incompetent to make financial decisions). This must all be evaluated officially, medically.