Legal Question in Elder Law in Illinois

Re: secondary beneficiary

You or perhaps your mother can take legal action against your sister to set aside her wrongful acts. Sadly, your problem is a common one. The action can take one or more of many different forms depending on the details of the situation. For example, you can seek the appointment of a guardian for your father who can protect him from your sister. The creation of a guardianship also serves to unquestionably deprive your father of the legal capacity to validly change his beneficiaries, and gives you a place to allege and try to prove that his prior conduct at your sister's behest lacks validity due to his dementia. Call me if you want to discuss this in more detail. Email me if you need to talk before Monday. Larry Stein.

Re: secondary beneficiary

In CT, you could file an application with the probate court to be appointed your father's conservator of person and estate. It appears that your mother is probably not capable of handling your father's finances with the power of attorney she holds because your sister is able to exhibit undue influence over both your mother and your father.

I do not believe that the "paper" your sister had your father sign appointing her as second beneficiary is valid.

The question becomes, where something like this should be filed. If your father still lived in CT, it would be the town where he lives. I'm curious as to whether they both should even be living in Chicago, especially in light of your sister's actions.

Attorney Stein mentioned a guardianship action could be filed. I would assume that a "guardianship" action is similar to a "conservatorship" action in CT. You may want to file this in IL and then have your parents move back here to CT. Then you could open a conservatorship action in CT.