RE: Inheritance Enquiry

friday02

Hi……Just looking for some advice from someone who may have been in a similar situation. It’s not legal advice I’m looking for.
My dad is a long term resident in a nursing home after suffering a stroke some years ago. He is disabled and needs full-time care. His speech was affected and he can’t have a full conversation. He can say a few words but is well able to express himself in other ways. His mind is perfect – he knows his surroundings, knows us his family and friends and is well able to express his feelings and wants etc.
I have an older sister who is married with one child. Our mother passed away after a long illness some years back. She was also a longterm resident in the hospital where our dad is currently. She was only deceased a short while when our dad suffered the stroke. Our mother’s funeral etc. had to be sorted so myself and my sister got legal advice and we were granted Enduring Power of Attorney over our father’s finances. You see our mother had left behind some money which we needed to use, with our father’s consent, to pay the funeral expenses, headstone etc. as neither ourselves or our dad had the means to do this. This money is in dad’s hospital patient account. His pension covers part of his stay in the hospital and any other funds remaining from his pension is lodged into this hospital account. He has a Credit Union account which has been left dormant since his illness. This is not linked to the hospital account and we were only aware of this account when we were settling up his bills and loans etc when his illness was confirmed. It has a very small portion of funds (approx. 900 euros) in this account.
We have recently been informed that dad is to receive an inheritance, on behalf of our mother, from a relative who passed away nearly five years ago now. She (our aunt and mother’s sister) was a lady who never married and lived alone. She had left a will but for some reason unknown to us, it is only being read now and her affairs sorted. In the will she has named our mother as a beneficiary and as she (our mother) is no longer alive and our dad is her next of kin, we understand that the inheritance will be granted to him. We have spoken to our dad and informed him of the situation and he feels that he would like the money to be lodged to his Credit Union account instead of the hospital account. He also says that if we need funds for whatever reason, he is happy for us to withdraw from the Credit Union account.
I just want to know that if I was to withdraw some money from the account to ease some financial burdens that I have (I have some arrears on my mortgage and I have a bank overdraft for a small amount which has been called in). My sister and father have given their approval for me to withdraw funds for these (verbal not written consent), do I have to explain to the Credit Union exactly why I am withdrawing the funds? The Credit Union said that we need to ask our solicitor to inform the Credit Union Manager that we have been granted Enduring Power of Attorney over our father’s finances (which include the Credit Union account). Once this confirmation has been sent to the Credit Union Manager, if I was to withdraw funds for the above do I need to prove that the money is being used for something for my dad? Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you 

Mr. Incognito

Wow,

Can of worms here.

Basically you want to take out money from your fathers account for your own use based on a verbal authorisation.

Do not do this.

If you require funds for your own use, use your own finances.

If you want to take a loan / gift then get proper written consent from your father.

Spanish Eyes

I think this should be moved to the legal discussions board. Very little to do with taxation here.