Hi Anita,

The appointment with the solicitor was very helpful… expensive, but worth every penny. I have now appointed this lady solicitor and all of my questions were answered, and all of my worries have been noted.

I have four ways of dealing with this problem.

1. Step away regarding the POA responsibilities. Revoke my POAs with the Office of the Public Guardian. This would then cover my back. However, the lady said that doing this would mean that my mother would only have one POA, and that is never a good thing.

2. Step away, but don’t revoke the POAs. If anyone else raises concerns, then I have to prove that there is no involvement on my part. I have lodged all bank statements, and details of various encounters with the solicitor. It can be now be proved that I had previously raised concerns with my sister and that these concerns have been ignored.

3. Complain to the Office of the Public Guardian about her behaviour. This would then initiate an investigation into what she is actually up to and she would have to prove that she is acting in my mother’s best interests. There would be severe consequences if they found that she was taking advantage in any way or using coercion or other tactics to make my mother capitulate to her demands.

4. And this one is interesting! Tell my sister I am not happy with her management of my mother’s accounts and that I am going to do the above (at 4.) and see if it changes her behaviour. In other words, threaten her with starting an investigation and see if it will have any effect.

So, I have some thinking to do about the way I handle these issues!