Unknown beneficiaries on annuity

[withoutaclue]

What is the name of your state? Ohio
My mother-in-law died last week; she spent her life in a loveless marriage, with an alcoholic husband. All of her accounts and finances were always keep separate from her husband’s. She has four children and had always told them that her husband would never get a penny of her money but never discussed any details with them (will, beneficiaries, and such). I guess her money was her only power over him.
During her final days her husband tried to get power of attorney but due to her dementia he was told that he needed two of his children to sign as witnesses, only 1 did.
Today my wife called her mother’s bank and found out she only has one remaining account, an annuity with an independent company. She called the company and was told that they would not release any information until her father came forward. I told my wife that is sounds to me as if her mother did in fact leave her money to her husband after all, am I right?

 

[Dandy Don]

WHO told him that he needed 2 of his children to sign as witnesses? Whoever told him this was very mistaken, as that is NOT correct.

Get an attorney and have him do some more investigating. A person with dementia is not legally permitted to enter into any contracts/agreements for anything because of their diminished capacity.

If the husband has used power of attorney to change beneficiary designations and claim assets, his actions are illegal (assuming that Ohio has laws on their books regarding abuse of power of attorney) and your attorney can help you inform hubby that he must return this money to the estate or face legal charges.

Despite what hubby thought, POA is not sufficient to change beneficiary designation and the annuity company should have known not to do it, but maybe they had no reason to know that he did it fraudulently. You or your attorney should contact the annuity company now to put them on notice about what he has done so that they won't pay him, and then start contacting the other financial institutions to see whether he did the same thing there as well. Yes, it does seem as if they want to contact hubby because he is probably the named beneficiary.

Is he mentioned as a beneficiary in her will and is the will being probated?

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

 

[freespeech]

Despite what hubby thought, POA is not sufficient to change beneficiary designation and the annuity company should have known not to do it, but maybe they had no reason to know that he did it fraudulently.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])

What? Where did the OP mention that the beneficiary was changed by the man on the annuity or that it was fraudulent?

 

[withoutaclue]

Hi Dandy, thanks for the response!
The family was told in a meeting with Hospice that they frequently “look the other way” in a case like this (dementia) and allow a dying person’s name to be forged on POA as long as family members are in agreement and two will sign as witnesses. My wife’s Dad (Hubby) really went off on his 3 kids when they wouldn’t agree to sign!! (as I said, 1 did sign) It’s a mute point though because this was on a Friday and his wife died the following Tuesday.
We suspect that over the last year of her decline, hubby has drained all of his wife’s accounts that he could access by forging her name on checks and such, but we were under the impression that her investments were safe from him.
Because she was so secretive about her money we really don’t know how much money she had or how or where it was invested. She was so determined to see that Hubby didn’t get her money (right until the end) we can’t believe that she would leave this money to Hubby after all.
We received an irate phone call from the single sibling that did sign the POA, after that ugly Hospice meeting, and she screamed that “Hubby had a will leaving all of Mom’s investments to Hubby!!!” and "that we would get nothing". So there is a will (we think) but it hasn’t been entered into Probate as of today. It's my understanding that a will won't (can't?) include investments anyway.
Our biggest problem is as Hubby is incommunicado and Momma was so secretive, we really don’t know what’s going on. We would just like to know the truth and see Momma’s wishes carried out.

 

[Dandy Don]

It's NOT a moot point.

I hope your mother was smart enough to have named an individual beneficiary on each investment account, and if you know where she kept these accounts you or your attorney needs to check with each account to find out IF hubby ever submitted a beneficiary change signed by him or whether she originally previously had named someone else beneficiary beforehand. Hubby's documents, if he got wife to sign them or if he used POA abusively/incorrectly, can be found to be invalid and the beneficiary designation can possibly revert to whoever was named previously.

The will is normally filed within 30 days of the death at the county courthouse probate court, so check there to see if they have filed it yet.

DANDY DON IN OKLAHOMA ([email protected])