Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Georgia

Wait a minute here - this is way too confusing and anyone who was a power of attorney for anyone else should never have been "sharing" anything.

If the woman had power of attorney over someone, then she really did not need to have a joint checking account for that person. However, the rule with joint checking accounts is that the monies remaining in the account at the date of death of one of the co-owners passes automatically to the survivor.

Although your post is not clear - let's call the agent under the power of attorney the agent. Did the agent die or the ward?

Powers of attorney end at death. So if the ward died, then the ward's estate would freeze all of the ward's bank accounts (the funds are frozen by the bank until an executor is appointed and then the bank will release the funds to the executor). Any joint accounts are usually not part of probate though so I don't know how a joint account could be frozen, but that is between the agent and ward's estate if it is the ward who died. As is the buying and selling of property. The agent will be required to provide a full accounting to the estate of the ward and if the agent misappropriated money then it will be up to the estate to pursue a claim against the agent.

Was the loan made by the agent under the power of attorney? Many powers of attorney, if properly drafted, allow the power of attorney to make loans. The funds are loaned from the ward's property and the ward is repaid by the borrower, not the agent personally. In that case, money would be repaid to the ward's estate. If the loan was made by the woman out of her personal funds, then the loan would be repaid to the woman, not the ward's estate.

Since things are so unclear here, I suggest that you meet with local counsel and pay him or her to review the loan documents as well as the power of attorney (this should be on file if it was being used). See who made the loan - the agent out of her own personal funds or the ward? That will dictate who gets paid.

If you really cannot tell, then you pay the money into court and bring what is called an interpleader action. In this action, you basically tell the court "I owe money to someone but don't know which of these 2 people/entities it is so I will pay the money into court and let them fight it out." But I suggest that a review of the documents may help make this more clear.