Question about handling someone's finances

[Sergias]

Little bit of a long story, so just bare with me here. I live in CT, and I'm helping out a friend of my father, who is currently in jail in FL, with his financial situation. He is a disabled vet, and around June of last year he sent me all of his ID's and cards (bank cards, credit cards, personal ID, military ID, ect ect) and asked that I help him out by putting X amount of money on his books, taking X amount for my self every month as a thanks for helping him, and then saving the rest. I have been doing so for almost a year now. As of about three weeks ago, this person got transferred into a hospital due to a burst hernia, and I have not been in contact with him since. As things currently stand, me and him only have a verbal agreement on our situation, I have no power of attorney, nor do I have a written agreement of any time with him, its strictly verbal.

This person also has an ex wife that he is still legally married to, and a couple of kids. All of that being said, what I want to know is this: Should his ex-wife-who-is-still-legally-his-wife decide to come after me for "taking money that's not mine", or if his kids decide to do the same, what are the repercussions in my situation? Do I have any legal ground to stand on? With him being in the hospital currently and me being unable to get any information on his condition (I called the hospital, they won't even tell me if he's alive or not), I'm not sure if he is conscious enough to verify our agreement, should anyone ask him. I'm left here holding all of this persons personal items, and I really don't want to have anything bad happen to me because I'm trying to help him out.

I'm also curious about his benefits, being a disabled vet, if his stay in the hospital takes a turn for the worst and he passes, do his benefits go to his wife, and therefore I am now holding on to her money?

Thank you for any help or advice you can give!

 

[FlyingRon]

Absent a power of attorney, some of your transactions are very much suspect. If the ex is on any of these accounts she rightfully can get upset.

Are these kids adults? If so, while they can certainly make complaints about your impropriety, it's unlikely anything is going to come out of it.
You don't have any "legal ground" period. Your only saving grace is the person you are acting for isn't complaining about the situation.

The wife is not an "ex" if she is still legally married to him. She is entitled to all benefits. What benefits she is entitled to depends on what he is entitled to.
If he was entitled to a military pension (i.e., had served the minimal time during wartime), she gets surviving benefits if she is un-remarried and her income is below a certain limit.

She doesn't get any of his disability benefits. Those will go with him to his grave.

 

[Dandy Don]

What a shame that you didn't think about getting a signed power of attorney from him before you started handling his finances, but at least you wanted to help your friend.

What you need to do is to write down a list of all transactions that you did so there will be some type of written record of how you handled his money. I doubt that anyone will try to come after you for what you did, but if they do at least you will have a record.

Please explain what you mean when you say he asked you to put a certain amount of money on "his books"--exactly where was his money put?

How did you pay yourself--through deductions from his debit card, or some other method?

Look up the court records for his case and see who his attorney was--maybe your friend has kept in touch with the attorney and the attorney may know how to contact your friend.

If you wanted to pay a private investigator a couple of hundred dollars, there is a 95% he could trace the current whereabouts (a mailing address) of your friend. You really need to make an effort to find him so you can ask him who he wants you to give his bank cards and ID to, and you can also let him know that if he still needs someone to manage his finances, there are people/individuals or companies called representative payees whom he can hire to do this for him so that you can be relieved of the responsibility. The payee would receive a fee of a certain percentage per month.

If someone goes after you for this money, all you can do is to defend yourself by telling the truth of what in fact actually happened.