Legal Question in Wills and Trusts in Pennsylvania

Its not illegal per se but commingling is the quickest way to get yourself in trouble if you are the agent. If money is missing, you could be charged with theft. So I would strongly counsel against it. If you are an agent, there should be no COMMINGLING whatsover. Whatever funds or assets that belong to the prinicipal should be kept separate from the agent's own funds/assets.

And you have to see what the power of attorney document says about accountings, but I would keep scrupulously good records in case there are siblings or anyone else that accuses you of misusing funds.

Finally, I don't understand your question about access to funds. If you are the power of attorney for someone, why would they have access to their funds? If they do, then why does the principal need a power of attorney? You can't have a principal accessing funds or other instruments on their own. If mnoey is gone and theg agent has no record, how can the agent protect him or herself from accusations of wrongdoing?

Again, you have to read the power of attorney, but most take effect only upon incompetency or incapacitation of some kind unless its something like a miltary power of attorney which is just in effect while the service member is deployed.