Newbee In Florida In Need Of Lots Of Help

[Hootchers]

Situation is my father set up a revocable trust almost 2 years ago setting local attorney as successor trustee in the event of my fathers incapacity (which has happened a year ago). 2 months after the trust was made, my father set up a durable power of attorney and put my sister and myself on it as poa. Make long story short, the trustee atty of trust is not doing anything and some of the choices he is making are not in the best interest for my father and his estate. example; was going to research taking his home out of homestead to sell. we understand that when eligeable thru medicaid that he is allowed to keep his home. my father is in a nursing home and we have another sister who currently resides in my fathers home. To be blunt this attorney is stupid. we have asked him as poa's to release himself from trustee but he said he has to have all (five sisters-beneficiaries) to sign a document and agree to release him. Well that isnt going to happen because we have 2 sisters that are difficult (to say the least) . My quest is actually do we as POA's have enough power to get rid of this idiot in charge of our fathers trust. we saw another attorney twice. we were first told that we could ask him to release himself, but the next time we talked with him he seems like he was a little wishy washy on some of his information and different from the first visit. Also on the house; it is being rented to the sister and we have learned that you can't rent the house when a family member lives their for the reason of keeping it in safety of homestead protected status. If this is correct, you would think this attorney would know all this stuff. Does any one have any similar experiences with this. Is there anything we can do besides court Please and thanks for any advise. hootchers

[RetireeRobert]

I am not an attorney and never was. My "guess" on the POA's vs the attorney as named Trustee of the revocable trust, is that the attorney would have the stronger position.

That "Durable Power of Attorney"---do the documents say anything as to what types of your father's affairs it applies to? The one thing I am again "guessing" about is "maybe", with POA's, you and your sister could "revoke" the revocable trust your father set up. That would leave that other attorney as trustee of nothing.

With five children involved and two of them you describe as "difficult", I can understand why the attorney named as trustee is leary to do anything without full consent of all five.

In the end, without all five children being on the same wavelength, it sounds like a court will have to untangle the mess.

[Hootchers]

Thanks for reply. The durable power of attorney pretty much allows us to do anything. It seems to cover everything as if it were him signing in every decision.

[Martha]

Odds are you can do whatever you father could have done under the revocable trust, but I would talk to a local lawyer to be sure and to develop a strategy.