What Can Be Done If My Agent Under My Power of Attorney is Misusing Funds?
Video Summary
What can be done if my agent under my power of attorney is misusing my funds? The first thing you need to do is contact your attorney or an attorney immediately and rescind and revoke your power of attorney. Secondly, if you are over the age of 50 or 55 you should contact the Elder Abuse Line and ask the sheriff department to investigate this matter as far as crimes against the elderly as far as them misusing your funds. So the immediate response or as soon as you find out about this you need to revoke the power of attorney so that they can no longer use it, notify your bank and that way they will no longer be able to use it.
If you put someone on your account as a joint tenant, that is going to be problematic. I suggest that you remove all the money from the account and open up another account just in your name so that they do not have access to it. That is of course problematic if you are getting your monthly social security checks and pension checks in this particular account, but that is a step in the right direction and then notify Social Security and these other agencies to send the money to the new account that the joint tenant does not have access to so that they cannot misuse your funds.
If you have any questions or need any assistance, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Estate Planning, Videos
Can Family Members Have Me Removed from Late Parents Will?
Video Summary
Can family members have me removed from the Will of my late parents? No, they cannot. Once someone passes away the Will cannot be changed. The only time a Will can be changed is while someone is alive and they can always have a last Will and they can choose who they wish to leave matters to. There are various challenges that can be made to Wills, which can divest you or eliminate you as a beneficiary if the Will was procured by undue influence or the testator, that’s the person making the Will, was not competent. That is a Will contest and if you were a beneficiary under the Will that was procured by undue influence or the person was not competent, well then you could possibly lose your inheritance.
But just because they want to remove you as a beneficiary under the Will they cannot do that unilaterally. There has to be some legal basis as to why you would not inherit. Along the problems that we are seeing, as far as trusts are concerned, the trust is not published and if someone is appointed as a trustee under your parents trust and they passed away, the trustee has the power to distribute the property to whomever they want and cut you out because you do not know what is in the trust, which is a real problem, particularly when you come see an attorney to ask him to do something about it and you do not have a copy of the trust so you do not know whether you are included or not.
If you have any questions about that, about your Will or trust and you being a beneficiary, well give me a call at 727-847-2288.
What Happens to Personal Property if There is No Will?
Video Summary
What happens to personal property if there is no will? I am assuming that the question presupposes or supposes that the person has passed away and has personal property.
And so what usually happens is, whoever gets to the personal property first, if it is untitled, is the one that takes advantage of it and does whatever they want to with it.
What should happen is that an estate proceeding should be established, although rarely it is, and the children or heirs of the decedent agree as to who is going to be the executor or personal representative of the estate. The personal representative then would inventory and list all the personal property and then sell it.
Now there is an exemption against the claims of creditors for personal property in a probate proceeding so that it goes to the children as far as that is concerned.
So my experience has been that if their only asset that the decedent has is personal property, usually the relatives or the caregiver or whomever is close to the decedent, takes care of disposing of the property and sometimes that creates some problems with the other heirs or relatives whenever they do not share it. But rarely is an estate opened unless there is titled personal property other than an automobile.
So if you have any questions about an estate, give me a call at 727-847-2288.
The Property I Rent is in Foreclosure, What Are My Options?
Video Summary
The property I rent is in foreclosure. What are my options?
Well, until the foreclosure is completed, the person who is being foreclosed upon owns the property so you are obligated to continue to pay your landlord under the Landlord Tenant Act and under any kind of lease or rental arrangements. So you would continue to pay them unless you receive a Pleading or Notice from the Court that says that you are to pay your rent into the Registry of the Court or to the bank’s attorney.
Also, there is an action that can be filed by a Homeowner’s Association or a Condominium Association that can require you to pay your rent to the Condominium or Homeowner’s Association if the owner is not paying the rent.
But because the property is in foreclosure does not excuse you from paying rent to your landlord. If you do not pay the rent to the landlord, then he has a right to evict you.
So your options are pay your rent or you may be evicted from your property.
If you have any questions give me a call at 727-847-2288.
- Published in Real Estate - Foreclosure, Videos