From: judgebean23x@gmail.com   
      
   The New York Times    
   Health    
      
   Finding Out Your Power of Attorney Is Powerless    
      
      
      
   DAVID PLUNKERT    
   MAY 6, 2016    
   Paula Span    
   Paula Span    
   THE NEW OLD AGE    
   You think you’ve done everything right: Your parents or other relatives have   
   signed a durable power of attorney. Among other things, it allows you to   
   handle their finances — taxes, bills, bank accounts, real estate sales —   
   if they become    
   incapacitated.    
      
   Everyone sleeps better. Months or years later, suddenly or gradually, the time   
   comes when older family members can no longer manage transactions on their   
   own.    
      
   You take the witnessed and notarized document to a financial institution — a   
   big brokerage firm like Wells Fargo or Ameriprise, or a national or regional   
   bank or credit union. And officials say no, they won’t honor your power of   
   attorney.    
      
   They insist that the account owners sign the institution’s own power of   
   attorney form — very unwelcome news, because by now the older account   
   holders may not be competent to sign legal forms. That’s why you’re there   
   in the first place.    
      
   Claire Ullman, a Barnard College professor, recently ran into this roadblock.   
   She and her husband have been helping an older relative consolidate her   
   accounts.    
      
      
   But Roslyn Savings Bank wouldn’t accept the New York State power of attorney   
   that the relative had signed three years earlier, when she sold her house. (In   
   this case, the bank wants a longer state form.) In the meantime, the relative   
   has developed    
   dementia.    
      
   â€œWe have a power of attorney, but we can’t use it,â€� a frustrated Dr.   
   Ullman said. “People sign these anticipating incapacity. Once incapacity   
   arrives, it’s too late to sign another one.â€�    
      
   It’s not clear how often similar scenarios, with their Catch-22 absurdity,   
   take place. But elder-law attorneys across the country say they have   
   encountered financial institutions unwilling to honor valid powers of   
   attorney.    
      
   Even in states where statutes require banks to accept a durable power of   
   attorney, or waive their liability when they do accept it, elder-law attorneys   
   have seen some balk.    
      
   â€œNumerous clients have had this dilemma,â€� said Bernard Krooks, a founding   
   partner of Littman Krooks in New York. “They listened to all the pundits and   
   drew up the documents. Then the bank says, ‘That’s very nice, but it’s   
   not our form.’â€�    
      
   In Long Beach, Calif., Sally Gutierrez had helped her mother, Dorothy   
   Hutchings, with a checking account at a local credit union.    
      
   Parkinson’s disease hadn’t affected Mrs. Hutchings’s memory or judgment,   
   but at times she couldn’t write. “She had bad tremors on her right side,   
   and she was very weak,â€� Ms. Gutierrez said. “Even making an X was too hard   
   for her.â€�    
      
   So Ms. Gutierrez put her own signature on the checks and, in the spirit of   
   full disclosure, carefully wrote underneath, “POA for 2007 Amended Hutchings   
   Trust.â€� She had all the necessary paperwork, too, or so she thought.    
      
   In 2008, however, the credit union informed her by letter that it would no   
   longer honor the power of attorney. Staffers insisted the family fill out the   
   credit union’s own form, accompanied by letters from two physicians   
   attesting to the account holderâ   
   €™s inability to make financial decisions.    
      
   â€œIt was shocking,â€� Ms. Gutierrez said. “I was panicked.â€�    
      
   Financial industry executives said they couldn’t provide estimates of how   
   many banks and brokerages insist on their own power of attorney forms, but   
   â€œI don’t think it’s uncommon,â€� said Nessa Feddis, the American Bankers   
   Association senior vice    
   president for consumer protection.    
      
   She defended the practice. “Banks hold important assets,â€� she said.   
   â€œThey have to be very careful when someone is asking for access to a   
   customer’s account.â€�    
      
   You can see her point: Government agencies and advocacy groups increasingly   
   warn about the financial exploitation of older adults, especially those with   
   cognitive impairment; the perpetrators are often family members.    
      
      
   Some financial institutions now train staff members, who should indeed be   
   alert to abuse, to recognize signs of diminished capacity.    
      
   But banks have other motivations, too. “Typically, when they’re insisting   
   on their own forms, they’re concerned about liability,â€� Ms. Feddis said.    
      
   If Nefarious Nephew A illicitly drains a senior’s account to buy a Ferrari,   
   Upright Nephew B might sue the bank. Sometimes, too, banks dismiss a power of   
   attorney as being “staleâ€� — signed too long ago — or for other   
   reasons.    
      
   The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the nongovernmental organization   
   overseeing securities firms, recently issued an investor alert about powers of   
   attorney. It cautioned, among other things, that you may need a firm’s own   
   form.    
      
   What can exasperated families do? One avenue: A lawyer can often cajole,   
   reason or badger banks and brokerages into honoring valid powers of attorney   
   by going above local managers to higher-ups.    
      
   â€œOnce we get to the right people, they accept it,â€� said Craig Reaves, a   
   past president of the National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys who practices in   
   Kansas City, Mo. “I’ve never had to go to court or even threaten   
   litigation.â€�    
      
   Of course, you then have to pay the lawyer.    
      
   Or you can be proactive by asking a brokerage or bank if it requires its own   
   durable power of attorney document and, if it does, having your relatives sign   
   it when they are still capable of doing so. You’ll have to do this for every   
   institution where    
   they have an account.    
      
   But read those bank forms carefully or have a lawyer review them, Mr. Reaves   
   advised. They can contain disadvantageous indemnity or arbitration clauses, or   
   provisions that contradict the individual’s general power of attorney. In   
   such cases, “I’ll    
   tell clients not to sign, and we’ll fight the fight,â€� he said.    
      
   Though it’s usually unnecessary, lawyers must go to court sometimes to make   
   financial institutions accept a power of attorney. Stonewalled families have   
   had to petition to become their relatives’ guardians or conservators — a   
   long, expensive    
   process — when all they wanted was to pay their bills.    
      
   The caregivers who told me about their travails found less drastic solutions.    
      
      
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