Maryland Power of Attorney
Upon review of the new financial power of attorney statutory language for both the short and long form, there are many good aspects with the new provisions. There are enforcement provisions in this new law. Before, a bank could refuse to honor your power of attorney and there would be virtually no way to force the bank to honor your power of attorney other than jump through their unique requirements. The agent must keep a record of all receipts, disbursements and transactions. There are other requirements as well. The execution requirements will change. While there is bound to be much confusion when this is enacted on October 1, 2010, overall, this was a good move by the Maryland General Assembly and this a positive development for our seniors. There are more safeguards into its use. There more defined routes to attack misuse. There is language that can be used to make this enforceable.
If you would like to know the background of why the new power of attorney laws are called “Loretta’s Law” please follow this link:
I have POA for my father who is in the hospital now and is going into a nursing home. Bank of America will not honor this POA. I’ve been able to sell his car and other property, cancel his insurance etc., the POA was good enough for that. I need to pay his present bills and the fees for the nursing home. What laws in the state of Maryland govern this issue?
Thank you for your help
At present, a financial power of attorney holder cannot force a bank to honor a power of attorney. There are a variety of reasons why a bank may not honor a power of attorney (i.e. it is too old, does not contain a notary seal, does not specifically address the account at issue, etc.). All of these are not valid reasons to dishonor a financial power of attorney. My guess is that your father may be eligible for Medicare (if he has more than 3 nights in the hospital) and you may have some breathing room from immediate payment obligations to the nursing home. Give our office a call. The worst case scenario is seeking court authorization to access this account. However, before taking that drastic step, I would like the opportunity to review the power of attorney and the situation in its entirety and have our office give the Bank of America legal counsel a call.
I have full POA over my mother and all her accounts are joint with my name on them. They have the POA on file, yet the bank is refusing to inform me of any large transactions, refusing information as to why they allowed her to trasfer halfe her life saving out to anothr account, and refuses to say where it went or do anything to reverse it (another family members influence on her is suspect) why will the bank not help me reverse this at all?
It sounds like the bank does not want to get caught in the middle of one joint account holder transferring funds out of this account. Under the new guidelines, there are additional protections in place that can force institutions to honor powers of attorney. The key is if that power of attorney was executed and is in conformity with the new guidelines that went into effect in October 2010. The Maryland rules surrounding financial powers of attorney changed in dramatic fashion effective October 2010. If you have not already done so, you should contact an elder law attorney to review the document and give you a game plan as to the anticipated next steps.