Our 95 year old mother was recently admitted to Nursing Home after 5-month in the hospital and the rehab. She is very ill and has moderate dementia. About 10-months ago, our sister volunteered to pay her bills. In the process she helped herself to more than half our mother's life savings. We are all named on my mother's accounts and my sister is claiming that Mom - who lives on $1,500/mo - allowed her to use this money. My Mom's life savings paid our sister's Am Ex bills; her utilities; her groceries; cigarettes and gas; insurance co-payments; restaurants; and small business expenses for my sister's daughter including rent, utilities and internet/phone bills;. Many of these expenses were paid while my mother was in hospital. We have all the records.
To make matters worse, our sister recently moved her daughter and her grandchildren into my mother's home. My mother hasn't lived there this year except for a few months. This girl pays no utilities, no rent, and the house is filthy. We wrote her and asked her to leave within 30 days so we could sell it.
We now hold Power of Attorney for my mother. In this capacity we have recently taken over Mom's medical and financial decisions. Mom went to the bank and changed her accounts herself.
We hired a lawyer. Our sister refuses to return the money. Her daughter refuses to leave the house. They have hired lawyers! Last week, our sister went to the Nursing Home to try to coerce Mom into signing a document allowing her free access to her money. She left after the police were called (the staff became alarmed). Now the police are investigating her for witness tampering. While my Mom was in the hospital, our sister controlled all medical information - claiming a Power of Attorney that did not exist! The hospital went along with this.
My sister's lawyer plans to sue us to get a court appointed Guardian. We don't want to fight this. Instead, we have hired a lawyer to evict our niece. Can we get a new will for my mother - on tape? She is still alert and aware (although there are lapses). Will it hold up? What is the best course of action? We don't want Mom too involved - it is breaking our hearts. Also, we don't want to spend too much money on lawyers - this is our Mom's money and she has little left.
To make matters worse, our sister recently moved her daughter and her grandchildren into my mother's home. My mother hasn't lived there this year except for a few months. This girl pays no utilities, no rent, and the house is filthy. We wrote her and asked her to leave within 30 days so we could sell it.
We now hold Power of Attorney for my mother. In this capacity we have recently taken over Mom's medical and financial decisions. Mom went to the bank and changed her accounts herself.
We hired a lawyer. Our sister refuses to return the money. Her daughter refuses to leave the house. They have hired lawyers! Last week, our sister went to the Nursing Home to try to coerce Mom into signing a document allowing her free access to her money. She left after the police were called (the staff became alarmed). Now the police are investigating her for witness tampering. While my Mom was in the hospital, our sister controlled all medical information - claiming a Power of Attorney that did not exist! The hospital went along with this.
My sister's lawyer plans to sue us to get a court appointed Guardian. We don't want to fight this. Instead, we have hired a lawyer to evict our niece. Can we get a new will for my mother - on tape? She is still alert and aware (although there are lapses). Will it hold up? What is the best course of action? We don't want Mom too involved - it is breaking our hearts. Also, we don't want to spend too much money on lawyers - this is our Mom's money and she has little left.
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