Question about Certificates of Deposits

To start, I was living in Arkansas though am currently living in India at the moment. My great grandmother put back a number of CDs for my sister and I to use for college/start life. My great grandmother is now incompetent and my mother has power of attorney over her and her estate. My sister and I are the beneficiaries of the CDs and it doesn't bother us if our great grandmother needs the money for her care, we do care however that our mother is abusing her POA and using our great grandmother's savings on herself. Recently I was informed that we were not going to receive our CDs because our mother wants the insurance of having money for herself. Is there anyway to prevent her from cashing in the CDs or, because we are only the beneficiaries, is there nothing we can do?

Thanks for any information.

Regards,
Kayla

[AFFA]

I wish to inform you that a careful study of the clauses of the Power of Attorney given by your great grandmother will be needed. Presently, your great grandmother is incapacitated. Therefore, the Power of Attorney given to your mother ceased from the day your great grandmother became incapacitated. However, if your great grandmother gave your mother a Durable Power of Attorney than it will remain valid till the death of your great grandmother. Further, the actions of the Power of Attorney can be challenged in Court by the beneficiaries if they are not correct. You and your sister are the beneficiaries of the CDs (Certificate of Deposits) of your great grandmother. You can therefore issue a notice to your mother that she should utilize the funds in the best interests of the beneficiaries failing which you will file a lawsuit.

AFF

Thank you very much. I'm glad to know that I can do something about it. I just want to make sure my great grandmother has the money she needs for the nursing home.

Incompetent in what regard? Of the mind or of the body?

If you are the beneficiaries, your mother cannot cash them and use the money on/for herself. She is duty bound by the POA to carry out the specifics of whatever decisions have already been established. In this, your grandmothers specifically named you and your sister as the beneficiaries of the CD's, and as such, your mother MUST make sure you receive them. If not, she can be sued. You can sue her or your sister can sue her.

You grandmother most likely has medicaid or some other form of insurance so it's unlikely you are simply worried about her nursing home costs. You want to know if the money is rightfully yours, and yes, it is.

Further, it depends on how broad the POA is. Many banks and other institutions do not not recognize them, nor accept them as legal, so there is another fly in the ointment to consider. How long is the POA durable for? Did it become ineffective once your grandmother became incapacitated, or did it become active as a result of the same? How many broad powers did your grandmother allow your mother to utilize? You'd need a copy of the POA to answer any of these questions.

It would be prudent to inform your mother that any money used on herself that is not in the best interest of the grandmother's intentions is fraud and she can be punished for it in a court of law. Also, be sure to advise her that any CD that has you and/or your sister's name on it as a beneficiary MUST be released to you and your sister, as you are the LEGAL owners/beneficiaries of them, and NOT her.

My great grandmother has dementia/Alzheimer's (which is why my mom sought POA), Parkinson's and has had many strokes that led to atrophy in her limbs and a number of other illnesses... including breast cancer that just cropped up within this past year. I am worried about her care because her medicaid/medicare has paid what it was going to pay (this is what my mom told me), which was the first 6 or so months of her initial induction into the nursing home. I don't want her to suffer anymore then she already is and I'm afraid when her savings run out (which will be soon at the rate my mother is dipping into them) what will happen to her care (will the bills continue to accumulate? will medicare/medicaid pick up the expenses or will the state seize what is left of her assets; her stocks and CDs left to my sister and I?). She receives Social Security and some money from stocks, but not enough to pay for the nursing home expenses. My great grandmother has always looked after me, I just want to do the same for her.

My mother and I are disputing this through emails and she isn't being very civil about it... especially after me telling her about going through a lawyer if need be. The only reason this even started was I needed some of the money to help with orthodontic work.

The last bank we went to, to cash a CD, they were having lawyers look over the POA papers. Apparently the person who has POA needs to update the papers every 6 months in order for them to be valid, or so we were told by this particular banks lawyer. I was reading over the papers at that time and my mother has power over her person and estate (which she is assuming means everything is hers).

Thank you so much for the answers.

Regards,
Kayla