I'm my mom's POA. Can I have my other sister removed from her checking account?

If you are handling all of the financial needs of your Mom now because she is no longer competent to do so, and have put your name on all her accounts as POA, then you are in charge of these accounts. If your Mom has already put your sister on an account as a co-owner of that account, then your sister is currently a co-owner of that account and you cannot remove her name. So it depends on how your sister is listed. This is the very very bad muddle up that occurs when things are not done properly. It is important to be on accounts as the POA, not a co-owner of the account. Speak with the Bank and speak with an elder law attorney about what to do now. As POA your Mom's money pays for the advice you need. If you are now managing all the finances you are responsible for every penny in and every penny out of your Mom's accounts, ALL of her accounts so it is important you are registered as POA, and papers presented to all banks, stocks, other entities. However, again, if the Sister is listed as a coowner of that account that is truly a problem. Get advice of experts now.

AmyDdot1: If your mother is of lucid mind, she can close the other account and use the closer financial institution.

Amy,

As your Mom's DPOA, you are required, by virtue of your fiduciary duty to her and her estate, to assume complete and total control of every aspect of her finances and to act in the best interests of her and her estate. Absolutely, close the account to which your sister has access and transfer all of that money to the account that you, as her POA operate on her behalf.

All you need to do is to present that bank with a copy of the POA docu (either by mail or email) and arrange for a wire transfer of those funds into the POA or co-signature account at the bank that her primary account is with and that you oversee. Close the other account and any card associated with it only after you've thoroughly reviewed every transaction your sib has made. In the interim, close it to her or anyone else's access.

If there are any questions on your sibling's spending from that account, ask for a full accounting from her. Hopefully, this can be accomplished without acrimony, but regardless, you are required to take complete control of every financial transaction made with mom's funds.

I hope that this goes smoothly for you.

Best-

(PS: As a retired RN, I take umbrage over a CNA, requiring some 8 weeks of training, calling themselves a "medical professional." You work in the healthcare field, but you are not a professional, not without a hard-earned degree in the Nursing field. Please don't insult those of us who earned the title and licensure.)

Dble post, sry.

Dble post, sry

No one should ever take anyone off a bank account merely bc they feel the other is acting inappropriately. You are violating the elderly person’s wishes. Even if you are POA you should NOT do this. This is over stepping through authority of the POA. If you believe a person is taking money inappropriately, you have a legal duty to file. Police report for elderly financial abuse. Failure to do this this buts your elderly parent in harms way and yourself I. Harms way bc you will be asked why if you believed there was financial fraud which is a crime, you failed to defend and protect your elderly parent by filing a police report. A POA is to keep this as elderly person set them up and ensure they functioned well for his or her behalf and if they do not tell authorities. A POA is NOT a law enforcement elder abuse investigator. Those are who should investigate in your county for any illegal fraud in accounts and take action. 1) That will deter the person acting unlawfully. 2) that will show you acted reasonability and not just sibling rivalry or retaliation. 3) APOA does NoT get to act as investigator, law enforcement, Judge and jury in financial fraud cases. That would be harassment of the POA against other POA to kick them out of the situation. Think it out. You will be accused of elder abuse yourself if you drake another POA lawfully appointed who was in an account off. You are violating wishes of your elderly person. If there is fraud of theft it first must be proven by independent investigation. Be lawful.

Mom has Dementia and in Memory Care close to me. I am her POA and since she is mentally incompetent as per her Neurologist, I am also her Trustee.
I handle all her finances, medical affairs. Many facilities do not recognize a POA.
since I have a letter from doctors, I can act on how it’s designated on her Trust.

we have three accounts in the bank. One that takes in her SS, her Trust account, and one for her miscellaneous items. My name is only on her Trust, but I can move money around as POA . Please keep great, accurate records of any transactions. Keep your money separate from mom’s. This is very important.
As a curtesy to my brother, I will send him a copy of mom’s quarterly statements. Then there are no questions on where her money is going.
This is working out well so far.

Sounds complicated.

Yes you can. I took my brother off my mom’s stuff. I’m her P.O.A. and have all the power until she dies then it goes away. He was trying to get my mom to write him a check for a large sum of money, thousands. I had to put her in memory care and that is not cheap. He wanted half of her estate now and she needs a lot of care now at 951/2 and I can’t do it by myself. She doesn’t have a lot of money and needs what she has for her care. When siblings start to abuse there rights, you just have to cut them off and care for your parents. There was a reason you were given P.O.A. So do what is best for your parent.

I wouldn’t do that esp considering that your sister had your mom living w and assumably was taking care of her. It will give the appearance to some and perhaps a court you have a personal agenda against your sister and you must be able to act and appear unbiased. was your sister compensated for caregiving for your mother?

I was a son taking care of my mom. We had separate checking accounts at the same bank, with the ability to transfer funds online. As her POA, I was authorized to access her account online and make inquiries. We both had to go to the bank so she could sign a form to give that authorization. It worked well. I paid most bills online, but when a check was needed, I showed the bill to her, and she signed a check. I would balance the account each month, and show her the monthly statement. After she died, all I did to close her account was provide the notice from the Surrogate Court showing I had authorization as executor, and a certified copy of the death certificate. My siblings were not involved in her care, and luckily, I had no trouble from them. The estate did not need to be probated.

I saw a son that was not only the POA but his parents conservator and still had trouble closing accounts. I hope you’re on good terms with that sister because what would work best is for both of you to go in and close that account together. From what I understand, because she’s on the account, she is just as legally entitled as you are.

If your sister is only on one account, close the inconvenient account and you will solve the problem for the short term.

There could be a long term problem lurking so protect yourself…
Ensure that every transaction (by your mom or you (if you help with any errands or financial transactions)) in all other accounts and for all purchases is well documented with supporting receipts. Keep pristine files with complete records. It is much easier to maintain these records than to recreate them later (Make sure that you are printing out, storing and not shredding your records in your own seemingly irrelevant personal accounts as well). . .
This may sound excessive, but do this for your protection.

A lengthy explanation is provided for those who care to read on…
A small move like closing the account (even if you must do it to protect your sister from her own bad choices) could set her off and she could try to retaliate against you in the future.

I was sued by several siblings (one had been my closest friend) and it all started after my elderly sharp Mom chose not to give that sibling an inappropriate large financial gift. (My mother is the person who felt it was inappropriate). My sibling believed I had blocked this gift despite the fact that this was mom’s choice alone. She decided to “get me back…”

As a result of two ensuing legal cases after mom’s passing years later, both in which I was named as a defendant, as estate executor and defendant, I had to account for and recreate a decade of my parent’s gifts and spending and had to also provide six plus years of tedious records documenting my own personal and completely irrelevant spending. Since I routinely destroyed my own records as a matter of protecting identity theft and they had been “archived” by my creditors, I literally had to pay credit card companies tens of thousands of dollars just to get copies of past bills that had once been free to access. (Yes, these could have been obtained directly from the credit card companies by court subpoena, good question, but that would have even cost more in legal fees)! Collecting these records, which I had once “prudently” shredded, also took months as some of the credit card companies had outsourced their electronic storage.

Keep in mind that my mom was mentally competent at the time of her decision to refuse the “gift/loan.” I suspect many of you may be running errands and buying groceries for people who aren’t.

I won both lawsuits completely and did so pre-trial, but I wish I could have just saved some stress and money I wasted by keeping better files in the first place. I would caution everyone who runs errands for an elderly person (both for reimbursement or using that person’s credit card) or who has POA to do the same. (If you shop as a loyalty customer at a drug or grocery store, they can regenerate all your transactions at a future time using your phone number in such a circumstance. So don’t forget to type in that phone number! Unlike the credit card companies, the drug and grocery stores regenerated records for me free of charge!

And, keep in mind…

if you’re acting as a caregiver, you might not be appreciated by all your family, it might make some others- who may have always been jealous in the first place- even resent you more.

Feel free to send me a personal message anytime if you find yourself in such a situation.

It may be possible to close the account that's inconveniently located. Does your mother have dementia or other mental condition? Even though you are her POA, banks need customers to prove their identity. If unable to visit her bank, her doctor can verify her competence.

Note that if you need to direct deposit her SS check into the new account, you are likely to need to be her SS payee, unless she can do it herself.

Is your mom incompetent? Is your POA activated. So, is your sister joint or beneficiary on mom's account? Does mom need that old account at all or can it just be closed out instead of having to remove sister?

What I am dealing with right now is the bank that momma has her trust account and savings will not honor my poa I am trustee, have medical poa and financial poa, however I live in Georgia and she lives in Alabama. I am trying to purchase a cd. Momma had alot of equity in her house when we sold it before she went into assisted living so I just stuck it in a regular savings account. Was advised by attorney to put it in a cd. Tried to do that but no the bank wants me to drive over to Alabama pick up momma and take her to one of their banks there. That's is a 5 and a half hr drive one way. I believe it has something to do with the poa needing so many witness signatures. Different states Different rules but man does it put the extra work on me. I am the responsible one so that is why I got the job of poa and just happens to live in GA.

You are a CNA taking postgraduate studies in health management systems, and I would expect you, as a CNA, to have more respect for both professional boundaries and your own distinct set of competencies than to claim some kind of spurious rank as a "medical professional."

No matter.

Your mother can close the account she no longer uses and transfer her money to the one that's more convenient. Does she want to do that? Or with her consent you can use your POA to do it for her if she prefers.

My mom had to remove my late brother (who I also shared POA with - but this nothing to do with bank acct) from her bank and replace with me and it took going there. They very very very much prefer to see the customer. Especially if they are older. They do it to protect them. When I had to be put on my mom's account we were there for over an hour, and my mom's on portable oxygen, just getting more and more enraged herself, lol, as they're dragging their feet in some weird way to make sure she wasn't under some kind of duress. We had to show up with a cert. of death to remove brother and they wanted documents from me and etc. "It's more convienent" isn't anything they think about. If mom has a good chunk of change it'll take time and likely being seen in person.

To remove my brother required a death certificate. This is because he was on the account as a joint owner. I.. don't know if you or mom can just remove sister if the account is joint (the kind of thing done to keep money from going into probate court or whatever? I don't know the details yet not looking forward to learning. It was something my mom had set up before her funeral was pre-paid etc and was an emergency continency.) I think sister would have to agree to be removed? On my mom's acct it is not joint, I am a "responsible person", as the only reason I need access to the account is to do the in person banking for her as her getting there in person is very very hard now.

If all three of you are on your mom's account, I believe that any one of you can open a new account (closer to you), transfer any or all of the money to the new account, and you with POA can use it for mom's needs. Opening a new account with only you and mom on it should be doable outside of the POA. You could try it.

Your profile doesn’t mention your mother having dementia. If she doesn’t, she still has a sound mind and can make her own decisions. One of which would be deciding who to include or exclude from her banking. You can see if mom agrees with your wishes and take her to the bank, but it’s her decision to make changes. Banks most often want to hear from the account owner and don’t put a lot of emphasis on POA