My mother recently moved into a nursing home in another state from the state where bank where she had a long term CD is located. Upon maturing, I was informed the bank would not honor the legally executed POA in her new home state and that the only way to access the funds was for me to obtain a court order conservatorship or somehow get her back to the bank physically to withdraw the funds. This is outrageous as several attorneys have verified as banks should not be able to pick and choose which legal documents they wish to honor. Any suggestions?
Answers
A small few will take my POA and send it to their lawyers, and if approved, only then will they accept that.
I set these up when I open the account, not for the first time when I seek to close it. Possibly if I tried to use mine anyway, I could, despite their assertions up front, but it would mean a delay, so I think setting up in advance is the only way to go, because in arrears you might not be in a circumstance that can wait, especially if the outcome of the delay is to reject using mine.
I've never needed to use a POA, I set it up only so in the event I am incapacitated, my POA can handle those matters for me.
My experience is that you should be able to set up a POA using that bank's form, and they will accept that. I have never had a bank not accept that simply because the notary stamp on it was an out-of-state notary. Using their form and getting it notarized should be all you need to do. You can take it to your mother at the nursing home, and a notary will come to you there (for an extra charge) and notarize it.
You did NOT say your mother was so incapacitated that you even could get a conservatorship. A conservatorship requires a very serious level of incapacitation, it is not something you can get for just anyone. If she is not at conservatorship level, then you should be able to get her to sign the form and have a notary notarize it. It is insane that the people at the bank tell you basically that anyone out of state is not allowed to have a POA, they can only have a conservatorship! That is not so, and they can provide you their POA form to fill out and use.
I have commented in these threads in time gone by about how insane it is trying to deal with POAs at banks. Few of them seem to have any understanding of them or notary. I think their lack of understanding is why they insist you can only use their form. But I have never had one have any issue with an out-of-state notary on their form. And my POA has been in a different state than I am, so I never have both notary and me in the same state as my bank.
Second, though, your mother's current mailing address should be on the account. You can simply have her give an instruction to close the account and mail a check for it. You can probably do that via a phone call, if you can get your mother to handle it, but otherwise via a mailed letter. You can also very possibly do it online -- if she isn't already set up for online banking, set it up. Or, use another account in her name, set up online banking there, and link it to the account in question, and do an ACH pull to take that money.
Or, set her up in a checking account at that bank, write a check, have her sign it, and cash the check. She is not in conservatorship, so she can write her own checks, or just sign them. But the nursing home should first confront you over it, because some people will take advantage of such people.
Though states have their own requirements, state laws generally recognize powers of attorney that were validly created in another state or that meet the state’s own requirements. However, states have the ability to refuse to recognize powers of attorney created in other states, so you should check the laws of any state in which your agent may need to use the document.http://info.legalzoom.com/power-attorney-one-state-recognized-another-state-26175.html
