I am concerned that my Dad and my sister have acted irresponsibly with regards to my Mum's finances but as I am the only one in the family who is concerned I need to get a feel if I’m right or not.
My Mum has AZ and the whole family agree she is now unable to look after her financial matters. She lives with my Dad who is her carer. My brother, sister and I are joint LPAs for both health and financial (Dad isn’t).
25 years ago Dad’s mother died and left to him by name approx £300,000 worth of shares. Mum and Dad were both executors of the will and somehow this ended up with both Mum and Dad being recorded as being on the share certificate and my understanding is that for 25 years these shares have therefore been in joint name. Mum and Dad have been married for over 50 years.
Mum’s AZ has deteriorated considerably recently and she is due to have a financial assessment. Dad wanted Mum’s assets to be worth less than 23k so he got my sister to persuade Mum to sign her half of the shares over to Dad (Mum would have had no idea what she was signing and my sister would have told her something along the lines of it meant the money would go to the children). The signature was accepted and the transfer of ownership has been made.
I have discussed this with my brother and sister but they both feel what was done was right due to a) the fact that the money was left to Dad in the will and it is simply being returned to him as his mum wanted and b) that we needed to get Mum’s money to under £23k so we didn’t ‘waste’ the money on care costs if this could be avoided. (until the financial assessment is made we don't know if they will pick up on this matter)
I feel that what Dad and my sister have done is wrong for the following reasons.
1) The shares were legally in joint name and as Mum no longer has capacity to decide what to do it was down to us as POAs (we have to act in unison on such matters) to decide what to do. I feel that to get a family member to get her to sign something she clearly didn’t understand is not appropriate.
2) Even if Dad had a strong legal case that the shares should be his, it is not appropriate for him to be the one deciding this. Mum would at least have a case along the lines of ‘they are in joint names and have been for 25 years and as we have been married all that time I consider I own a half share’.
3) If we three POAs soon decide that Mum needs to go into a care home and either the local authority won’t fund because she doesn’t meet their criteria on health or financial grounds then we no longer have any funds for this. Prior to Mum signing the shares away we would have had access to this money to pay for care home costs for a few years. Dad has made it clear he doesn't want to use the shares to pay for care home costs.
Does anyone have any view on this? If these actions were inappropriate and these shares should be available for Mum’s benefit could there be any legal avenues open to me?
My Mum has AZ and the whole family agree she is now unable to look after her financial matters. She lives with my Dad who is her carer. My brother, sister and I are joint LPAs for both health and financial (Dad isn’t).
25 years ago Dad’s mother died and left to him by name approx £300,000 worth of shares. Mum and Dad were both executors of the will and somehow this ended up with both Mum and Dad being recorded as being on the share certificate and my understanding is that for 25 years these shares have therefore been in joint name. Mum and Dad have been married for over 50 years.
Mum’s AZ has deteriorated considerably recently and she is due to have a financial assessment. Dad wanted Mum’s assets to be worth less than 23k so he got my sister to persuade Mum to sign her half of the shares over to Dad (Mum would have had no idea what she was signing and my sister would have told her something along the lines of it meant the money would go to the children). The signature was accepted and the transfer of ownership has been made.
I have discussed this with my brother and sister but they both feel what was done was right due to a) the fact that the money was left to Dad in the will and it is simply being returned to him as his mum wanted and b) that we needed to get Mum’s money to under £23k so we didn’t ‘waste’ the money on care costs if this could be avoided. (until the financial assessment is made we don't know if they will pick up on this matter)
I feel that what Dad and my sister have done is wrong for the following reasons.
1) The shares were legally in joint name and as Mum no longer has capacity to decide what to do it was down to us as POAs (we have to act in unison on such matters) to decide what to do. I feel that to get a family member to get her to sign something she clearly didn’t understand is not appropriate.
2) Even if Dad had a strong legal case that the shares should be his, it is not appropriate for him to be the one deciding this. Mum would at least have a case along the lines of ‘they are in joint names and have been for 25 years and as we have been married all that time I consider I own a half share’.
3) If we three POAs soon decide that Mum needs to go into a care home and either the local authority won’t fund because she doesn’t meet their criteria on health or financial grounds then we no longer have any funds for this. Prior to Mum signing the shares away we would have had access to this money to pay for care home costs for a few years. Dad has made it clear he doesn't want to use the shares to pay for care home costs.
Does anyone have any view on this? If these actions were inappropriate and these shares should be available for Mum’s benefit could there be any legal avenues open to me?