My mother's POA is uneducated and vindictive. He has hired a lawyer to rep my mother. My mother has never heard of the lawyer. Her POA has spent at least 3500.00 on the lawyer so far. Mom forced to sell home, enter NH, now she is recovered, wants to go home, family has screwed her by applying for Medicaid, now she can't go back, apparently. Same lawyer has allowed POA to give my brother a home and a car that belong to my mother. POA is also executor of mom's will. POA states he will change her will and life insurance beneficiaries to suit himself, leave mom's money/assets/basic life ins benefit, if there is any, to his own kids. States he will cancel my mom's 100K optional life insurance policy. Tried to cut me in on deal to keep quiet. I protested and was assaulted. Now lawyer sends me letter stating my mom will not pay the 400.00 premum from her retirement anymore; if I want my mother to have the 100K life insurance, I must pay the premium. Hilariously...I am not a beneficiary. The beneficiaries she currently has named don't have 400.00 a month to pay her premium. So why would I? Can my uncle declare his kid the beneficiary, pay the premium, and keep the 100K life ins going, then when she dies, his kid gets the money? I know this sounds totally insane. Yes, I have spoken to two lawyers, and have read everything there is on the subject. But I cannot determine WHY my mother cannot continue paying her life insurance premiums, when they have NO CASH VALUE, and the premiums are paid from her RETIREMENT INCOME from a PRIVATE EMPLOYERS FUND, not SS. And why on earth the executor of her will, who is also her POA is allowed to change her life ins beneficiaries and her will???!!!
I would contact Medicaid if he gifted himself anything from your mom, he is jeopardizing her Medicaid coverage. You can't just take her assets and expect the taxpayers to foot the bill. I would get on this right away because he could be putting your mom in real danger of no care or big bills that can't be paid and create a pain for whomever they call and hassle.
What state is this in, Alabama?
Her home was sold? Did that money buy a house for someone else?
Contact Adult Protective Services. There is something very wrong here.
A POA does not give a person the right to change a will or beneficiaries on insurance policies. The house cannot be turned over to him or the car if Mom is going on Medicaid. There is a 5 year look back.
If Mom is on Medicaid or Medicaid pending, her SS and any pensions go to her care, she has no money. She is allowed 2k in her bank acct and gets PNA acct with maybe $50 for her care.
That 100k policy is really not worth paying 4800 a year for. I really can't believe her premium is this much. She probably has put 100k into the policy. Let it go. Her employer one is different if she is paying thru her pension.
I think you need a lawyer just to make sure the other lawyer is on the up and up.
1. In Indiana, Medicare considers ALL life insurance to be an asset. Medicare will pay the monthly premium and then collect the insurance when she dies. This is how they call it an asset: anything that reimburses them for her care that they have paid for is an asset. There is no cash value for this life insurance policy. It turns out it is only currently 200.00 a month and she has been paying a premium that has been going up since 1963. I know this is impossible to believe, but it is true. Medicare is gracious enough to allow ME to "purchase" her life insurance policy and pay the monthly premium. However, also in Indiana...
2. The Power of Attorney has the legal ability and right to change the life insurance policy beneficiaries. So, I am invited to pay the monthly premium, while he (POA uncle) is allowed to change the beneficiaries. Every lawyer I spoke with today assures me this is totally, absolutely true, in the state of Indiana.
3. The lawyer currently working on my mother's estate declared that Mom's car and my brother's home, which my mother owned outright, were not worth enough to matter to Medicaid and awarded the title of both of them to my brother. He said the 5 year lookback does not apply. it is true, the car was worth about 1K, and the home my brother lives in is worth about 3500.00.
4. Mom's only other asset is her home worth 130K, which was fair market appraised and sold to the POAs friend for that amount. None of us children, her only legal heirs, her only beneficiaries, were allowed to buy the home. We were not even aware this was going on. The POA did tell me that he was going to sell the house...but would not give me the name of the lawyer to discuss any of this with the lawyer. And at that point, assaulted, flabbergasted, I was in no shape to take care of any kind of business. I have recovered now and am able to effectively get legal advice, and have as of this morning, spoken with the estate lawyer's assistant. Who has assured me that everything I reported here to you is totally accurate and true.
5. My mother was in the hospital for a short time in February, this is when her family decided to let POA uncle "take over" and she has been railroaded into a NH, bullied into signing anything and everything by this 300 pound "brother", threatened to be placed in a mental hospital if she causes any trouble.
6. Essentially, since my mother DID sign the POA for my uncle, when she was practically unconscious due to dehydration in February, she has recovered to a large degree. She is currently being advised to "act like she cant walk", so she wont be thrown out of the NH, this is coming from the staff. As an aside, Mom in hospital, then rehab, was denied all of her usual psych meds, in the family effort to have her declared incapacitated. They took her in for "mental testing" according to mom. Family threatened to kill me if I interfered. But I finally get enough support that I arrived in early May. Once there, I had a total lawsuit- threatening fit with her docs and got her back on her usual psych meds. Docs inform me that family did not tell doc that Mom had 40 yr psych history. POA assaulted me over this conversation. Does no good to call police, my family is police force and government (such as there is) in this small town.
7. Mom is essentially not really much more than forgetful, with some anxiety and well placed terror over the roaming wheelchair bound demented crowd that corner her in her room. When she pushes the call button, she is chastised by staff for not being nice to the "sick old ladies" who open her door and invade her room.
8. To be clear, POA is her brother, my uncle. I am allowed to purchase her life insurance but no guarantee that I will be the beneficiary. If I do not purchase the life insurance and pay the premium, then Medicaid will do so and get the 100K.
Why would her family want to do this to her? People with power will pay a very serious price for the abuse of it. Maybe not here and now, but eventually.
From your previous posts, I think ur going to have to let it all go for ur sanity. Make sure you have rights to visit Mom. Really, having her in a NH is not doing her brother any good. All he got out of it was a 1k car and a 3500 house. The money from her house goes for her care and the insurance policies to Medicaid.
I would ask a lawyer about monies being used to prepay her funeral. Either from the proceeds from her house or from the insurance money Medicaid will get.