Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in California
admittedly I don't have much information.
In our condos there is an elderly lady who seems to recognize she is being taken advantage of by here children whom she gave power of attorney to some years back. She is extremely youthful at 73 and is intelligent and engaging and seems a lady in her late 50's. Very intelligent, but like my mother she tends to forget some things, which seems natural at her age. She had a fall a few years back, and as a result only has some "short term" memory issues, but not "Alzheimer" at all. Not by a long shot. But her children saw this as an opportunity to move on her. It looks like they have aims at taking her vehicle and possibly property. She now realizes she can't trust them, but feels it's too late. So we are trying to help her.
I was doing a little reading to try to determine if she is able to revoke it. She fears her children to an extent( one is rather loud and boisterous) so we are trying to determine if she can do this unbeknownst to her. If she doesn't "seem" to have specific recollection about any copies of paper work, or whether an attorney was involved (but admittedly I personally need to ask her, as my mother is the one who visits her) Is there any direction we can give her to find out what she can do ? and if it's possible to revoke?
She seems to think it's just a financial power of attorney. There again I am so busy just haven't had time to nail down some questions. My Mother talks to her, then tells me, and my mother forgets to ask her these questions! her children live in southern cal as well.
thank you very much(we are in Claremont California)
Dan Garnica
2 Answers from Attorneys
See: http://ag.ca.gov/bmfea/pdfs/citizens_guide.pdf
Power of Attorney are so powerful and so often used to take from the one signing it. They are easy to draft and the signer may or may not know what they are signing. Caution must be used. YES, it can be revoked but the damage may already be done. The problem is, practically speaking, that a person is out there with at POA that appears valid and any one s/he shows it to will have to assume it is. There is much to do to try to fix this and it may be there money has been stolen already and actions may have to be brought against the children. Not pretty.
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