My mother has had dementia for 3 years. I just found out my mother has signed over the deed to her house over to my sister. My mom told me the other day that she signed a bunch of papers on her house concerning the deed. she doesn't know why or how come my sister did that. I also went to her filing cabinet and noticed all my moms bank statements and will is gone. I've confronted my sister and she just tells me to don't worry about it. Also when I asked her to bring my moms bank statements back she told me no. Isn't this illegal and if it is what type of attorney can I call for help
Even if your sister did have POA, with your mom's dementia, it's quite possible she didn't have the clear mind to know what she was doing. That might be hard to verify though.
If, in that moment she signed the deed, she was in her right mind and knew what she was doing, it might be legal. No matter what, there should have been a witness, like a notary, involved.
Even lawyers don’t question a person’s competency. My sibling brought my 95 year old mother with dementia to a new lawyer that neither one of them had met before and had her change her trust and will that she had in place for 16 years to benefit himself 100% removing all other beneficiaries.
The lawyers did what he asked even though she wouldn’t sign it the first time they went back 4 months later when my brother told them she was ready to sign.
Lawyers just want the $$ and won’t question anything.
The “good”would be that mom’s dementia is such that mom cannot handle $ anymore, so there was fraud, etc worries so Sissy condensed banking to deal with things. Maybe put property into a Trust so it could bypass probate which is usually a good estate move. But I’ll bet a case of Prosecco, this was not what happened but instead Sissy did a $ grab. And this will become an issue once mom become more frail and needs caregiving and a facility.
I’ll bet your mom is not sitting on a nest egg of $300K and a home worth 700K; mom does not have a coterie of family and friends and church members who all can devote whatever 24/7 time needed to caregive and run errands for mom for your mom’s foreseeable future till forever. I’ll bet your mom is like more elderly in the US…… mom has a modest home, maybe worth 300K and the average Social Security monthly income of around $1,200/1800 a month and maybe a smallish savings of 50K. And that dear Frank Paz will pose very real issues with what your Sister has done by signing over your moms house to her and ditto for moms banking and other financials for the day when mom needs caregiving help.
Here’s my thoughts as to why it’s a problem and why and what it means to you as the dutiful son:
- mom has gifted her home to Sissy. That “gifting” will make mom totally ineligible for Medicaid to pay for any custodial program for her. So no State custodial AL, MC or NH eligibility for mom due to gifting.
- gifting places a transfer penalty on any LTC type of Medicaid application. It’s set by # of days too. It’s a division type of math problem based on the day rate State pays for room&board & property value by tax assessor starting date of the Medicaid application. So State that pays $200 a day with house value of $275K is 1,375 days of ineligibility. 1,375 days is almost 4 years of ineligibility!
Sissy has got to realize that as she did this is, it is now 100% her problem, her purse, her wallet to pay for all of moms costs of care should caring for mom get way waaaaay beyond what she can do at home or mom runs out of her own $. Moms gonna be ineligible for facility Medicaid. All property records are keystrokes for a caseworker to find out about. That gifting will be there looming as a penalty for 5 years from the date of the filing Medicaid application for almost all States. It’s not your problem. No es su problema Paz! So if Sissy comes asking you for $ to pay for help for your mom, think hard before you give Sissy a penny.
- if mom was diagnosed with dementia as others have said she may not have been competent or cognitive enough to understand what she signed. That Sissy basically “took advantage of a very adult”.
This is a very real crime. APS / Adult Protective Services can be asked to do an investigation on this.
The issue on this - imho not an attorney opinion - is that mom may not yet have had “harm” from the actions done by your Sister. If mom is still living at the house that once was hers, getting her groceries, all her bills are getting paid, utilities are on, she’s clean & fed, APS might not find problems. Sissy can say “Mom forced me to take the house, $ in the bank as a gift” yada, yada. It’s hard to counteract stuff like this. There’s no real harm to your mom…….yet. The harm will be when mom does not have the $ to pay for AL or MC or NH as there is no house sale $ as the house was gifted and $ in moms bank accounts was drained by Sissy.
So what to do? What do you think Sissy actions are all about? Is she a greedy witch and already has been coming to you to pay for things for mom? OR Did she do this to streamline assets & $ to get all assets outside of probate and Medicaid lookback?
Keeping bank statements and financial information is by no means a violation of fiduciary responsibly as a POA or even as the child entrusted with the finances. Keeping financial records would be part of her responsibility as POA. She has no fiduciary duty to share her mom's finances with her sibling.
My advice would be for the sibling to calm down, ask his sister questions in as unemotional way as possible and get as many facts as possible. Keep in mind that she may be following the instructions of the mom to maintain privacy. If he still believes his mother has been taken advantage of by his sister, talk to an elder law attorney to see what actions can be taken, if any, by that state's laws.