My mom became terminally ill. Parents have a trust that contains durable POA and Healthcare POAs in place since 2014. Parents did not tell the POAs. Mom gets sick. On both POAs, Dad was primary (he is deceased), secondary is Kay and third is Jean. Is it legal for Jean to step in and act as the POA without ever telling Kay that she was primary POA? And is it legal to set up a different Healthcare POA outside of a Trust - because Jean did this too? Kay found out after my mom died that she was a durable POA and Healthcare POA. In other words, Kay was never informed.
Jean was the third and last choice only if first dad couldn’t perform and then Kay couldn’t perform.
The authority of a POA is invalid after the death of the principal.
Is it possible that your mom signed a new POA because Jean was caring for her and mom still had the mental capacity to do so?
Parents will sometimes set up their POAs, executors etc in birth order. Oldest child listed first and youngest child listed last. Then later when a POA Is actually needed they will realize that it makes life easier if the person doing the actual caring has the POA and so they change it.
It was your mothers responsibility to give you a copy of the POA at the time she signed it. Since she is deceased you can’t ask her now why she didn’t. Even if she had given it, a new POA could still have been executed. She may have even forgotten that she had signed those. Since she didn’t share it with you, you can only speculate.
In most, if not all states, only the principal ( your mother ) can assign her authority to her chosen agent (Jean or Kay).
She is free to change this as often as she chooses. So while your mom may have changed her mind on who would act when, she had to be competent to do this and she had to execute the document.
Is it possible that #3 didn’t know there was a POA already created. Just like #2 didn’t know?
She may well have taken her mom to sign one knowing she needed it to take care of her. I can’t see where that is wrong. We advise people to do that all the time.
If in her capacity as agent under ANY POA, Jean violated her authority in some manner that was harmful to your mother, she could be held accountable.
But to what degree would depend on a great many variables.
So first of all, mom should have told #2 and #3 if she wanted them to know.
If #3 later became POA, she was under no obligation to tell #2. It was mom’s business.
But also know that if a POA stepped outside the bounds of the POA document then regardless of when they were appointed, they could be held liable.
If when you read this thread, you would give us some feedback our subsequent answers might be more helpful. I’m sorry for the loss of your parents and this discord with your sister.
2) different states will have different laws surrounding PoAs.
Again, contact an attorney as this issue may be too complicated for this forum.
In fact it is not very wise to put one person in charge of everything with no checks and balances.
If someone has a trust there are instructions for taking care of the person(s). That is the whole reasoning behind a trust.