When a Relative Is Draining a Parent’s Accounts

Financial exploitation of an older adult is usually committed by someone the family knows, and often by someone the parent chose and trusted. That is what makes it so hard to confront and so easy to ignore until the money is gone.

An agent under a power of attorney is a fiduciary

A power of attorney is a grant of authority, not a grant of ownership. The agent is a fiduciary who must act in the principal’s best interest, keep the principal’s property separate from their own, avoid self dealing, and maintain records of every transaction.

Texas spells this out. Tex. Est. Code § 751.104 requires the agent to maintain records of each transaction, and sections 751.251 and 751.252 allow specified interested persons, including a child of the principal, to petition a court to compel the agent to account.

Illinois provides parallel relief under its Power of Attorney Act. Courts in both states can order an accounting, remove an agent, and impose liability for breach. Gifts to the agent are the area of greatest scrutiny. In general, an agent has no authority to make gifts, including gifts to themselves, unless the instrument expressly grants that power, and even an express grant does not license self dealing that harms the principal.

What to do first

Move quickly, because the practical remedy is usually recovering assets that still exist.

Document before confronting. Gather statements, deeds, title records, beneficiary change forms, and anything showing the timeline of the parent’s decline against the timeline of the transactions.

Make a written demand for an accounting. This alone resolves a surprising number of situations, and it creates a record when it does not.

Alert the financial institutions. Banks and brokerages have escalation procedures for suspected exploitation of vulnerable adults, and a documented report can freeze further movement.

Report it. In Texas, suspected exploitation of an elderly or disabled adult is reported to Adult Protective Services, and under Tex. Hum. Res. Code § 48.051 reporting is mandatory for anyone with cause to believe it is occurring. Illinois has a parallel adult protective services system. These are not substitutes for legal action, but they open a parallel investigation.

Then get counsel. Depending on the facts, the tools include a court action to compel accounting, revocation of the power of attorney if the parent retains capacity, guardianship if the parent does not, a temporary restraining order to stop transfers, and suit for breach of fiduciary duty, conversion, or fraud.

If the parent has already died

The claim does not disappear. It belongs to the estate, and the personal representative can pursue it. Where the wrongdoer is also the named executor, an interested person can contest the appointment or seek removal. Transactions made when the parent lacked capacity, or procured by undue influence, can be set aside, including deeds, beneficiary changes, and account retitling.

Limitations periods apply and they are shorter than families assume. In Texas a breach of fiduciary duty claim generally runs four years and a conversion claim two. Delay is the most common reason these claims fail.

This week: Document before you confront. Gather statements, deeds, title records, and beneficiary change forms, and line the transaction dates up against the timeline of your parent’s decline. Then make a written demand for an accounting.

If you suspect a relative is exploiting your parent, the first hour of documentation is worth more than the first month of arguing about it. Call or text 512.761.8479.