Expert: David Simonsen - 10/28/2007

Question
My mother is 88 years old and she has early Alzheimers. She can function well, except that her short term memory is zero and she makes very poor financial decisions. I recently took her to the bank to pay her bills and discovered that she had no money in her checking or her savings accounts. When pressured, she at first denied giving money away but later admitted to giving money to my older sister who is a deadbeat (she left her 3 children, her husband and her job for some guy who is no longer around, she can't maintain another  job and she is now on social assistance).

This is not the first time that my older sister has taken my mother to the bank to get money. Now, in order to pay my mother's rent, I've lent my mother money; most recently I had to lend her $3000 to cover her rent and Visa bill. Now I find that she gave $500 of that money to my deadbeat sister! I cannot reason with my mother as she cannot remember that I lent her money; she thinks it's her money and she can do with it as she pleases. Speaking with my sister is useless; she just does what she wants.

On top of all of this, today, I got a call from a neighbor saying that my deadbeat sister and her latest boyfriend were trying to break into my mother's house to take some things (my mother recently moved to a senior's home).

Is there anything I can do to prevent my sister from taking money from my mother?  I have dual-signing authority on my mother's checking account but not her savings account or Visa yet.

Answer
SL,
I would suggest that you go to the court and show that your mom is incompetent to rule her own finances. This is in her own best interest. Hopefully you will get power of attorney and then you can hire someone to be a guardian over her finances or you can be. I would call the police in regards to the sister whenever she does something that is illegal.
David
www.help4life.net