Legal Question in Elder Law in New York

Hi,

From june 2012 through now, my mother has been in a nursing home. She was awaiting for medicaid approval, which she was approved as of 2/1/2013. During that time she gave me power of attorney to receive all the documents needed to get her approval and to take care of her checking account and pay bills. During this time any monetary transactions that took place between my mother and I she was fully aware of. Now my siblings are questioning the validity of these transactions and have started to accuse me of wrong doing, even though my mother has stated that is not the case. They are threatening me with going to the sheriff and the D.A.. Some of the things they are making accusations about are bills that were paid that were my mothers, but they think they were mine because the didn't recognize the bank name, and a transfer from her checking to my checking, that was put back to her account the following week. They believe this was all done purposefully and won't believe any thing we tell them, they think my mother was taken advantage of. They are leaving nasty voicemails on my husbands company cell phone and ordering me to make contact, even though my mother has explained to them that there was no wrong doing and that they have to stop, because unless she presses charges against me, which she won't, because she knows what transpired was not wrong, they can't continue making accusations and slandering me. Do they have any cause to pursue giving me a headache about this?


Asked on 6/29/13, 3:37 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Richard Bryan Richard Bryan Attorney PC

Yes your siblings are going to make your life miserable until all of you guys sit down and come to a compromise and solution. You have to find someone who can mediate if the group of you can't sit down without yelling. You'll need to get all of mom's bank statements and other account statements and itemize every transaction and reconcile all of mom's accounts to the penny. You are obligated to do that as Agent acting under a Power of Attorney and they are entitled to ask for that as mom's children. Everything has to be out on the table or else there will never be an end to the arguing. The police aren't going to get involved in this family dispute; that's a non-issue.

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Answered on 6/29/13, 9:14 am


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