What happens in these circs ?: both elderly parents alive ,mum took all dad's money into her name ,now she's died .

[Yellowstonemaddnesa]

So these are not my parents.
Mum and dad had I think mirror wills and mum had son Joe being her power of attorney and all dad's money ie joint money went to mum. Mum has a new will with Joe being executor and possibly all money shared if she goes second ,hopefully if she goes first money goes to dad

His care home is being paid for.

Now mum has died first , does dad's original will come into play and who does his power of attorney.

But mirror wills normally leave assets and savings to spouse, thus transferring their IHT allowance to use when second one dies. What other beneficiaries are there? If she has died first the money and assets are no longer under Joe’s control. As executor he can sell the flat when probate is granted and distribute the estate as per will.

Sorry, I thought the mum was dead?

Is she, or not?

How is Joe "stuck"?

It seems a very common and simple situation.

Mum has assets, dad in care home. Family home sold - half buys flat for mum in her name, half goes to dad to pay for care.

While mum is alive some random Joe has poa, manages her affairs (which, for the avoidance of doubt, would NOT have included any right to amend her will).

Mum dies. Poa ends. Joe is executor. Will leaves everything to dad. Joe winds up estate, puts all money in dad's name as per will.
Joe has no further responsibility.

At some point dad dies, inheritance, such as it may be, goes to whoever his will states.

(I hadn't spotted that Joe was their son, sorry - doesn't change anything though)

Also, not clear what you mean by "dads original will", only one will by dad can be valid. The most up to date one is not invalidated by the mums death.

@Negroany now she is, yes.

I think you're saying that at one point they had mirror wills / wills that left their estates to each other and then if both dead to x y and z.

Are you saying mum changed her will after the mirror wills were written? Or you don't know if she did?

No, you can't 'assume money has been left to dad'. She could have written a new will and left it all to the cat's home / Joe / the lady next door thinking Dad was sure to die before her. It would be odd to do that, but it's possible.

Joe is nothing to do with anything anymore unless he's executor of Mum's will. If he does anything with the poa after she's dead that's illegal and the executor will find out when they get all the paperwork etc together to do their thing.

If he is executor then he now has to do whenter it is the will says (even if its goive all the money to the cat's home!)

Potentially I think it could be possible for Dad / someone on his behalf to contest the will on the basis he was her dependant, if he needs financial support.

Does mum's will leave everything to dad or to Joe? It's her will that matters. If dad has no poa and has dementia there are legal routes for who controls his money, but presumably it will go first to paying the care home fees. If giving the money to mum was deprivation of assets to avoid care home fees that money may be taken for care home fees regardless of her will. Talk to a solicitor it could be a bit of a mess.

Who manages your Dad’s money? Someone will need to his Deputy for finance if he no longer has capacity.

@catipuss i think they dissolved his assets so the mum would be more secure as the dad had dementia and no poa and assets were in his name namely the house.
So they dissolved that ,shifted it to mum by this time a nervous wreck obvious of money etc
And with her tweaked her will to cut the dad out.

@LeftBoobGoneRogue we have a feeling Joe will go for that also.

If that’s what happened don’t be surprised if the local authority go for deprivation of assets. Half of everything in joint names plus all of the assets previously in his name should be used for the fees. They have the authority to go back years.

You could apply for deputyship @Yellowstonemaddnesa.
Why should it be Joe who does?

No if the house is in both their names and is sold it's not all mom's money. If dad doesn't have a poa in place Joe can't legally control it. It should be SS that has control. Call SS if you are concerned.

No one can "dissolve" his assets. That's not possible.

Are you in the UK?

@SmudgeButt that seems to be what happened he will be looked after but this seems to be what happed so joe could control the money for mum shift everything into her name .

Someone needs to, why is this a problem?

By dissolve do you mean everything was put under her name? Yet they still had joint accounts.

@Comefromaway the state isn't paying for care home fees.

So her will splits the assets and it's very strange it was said she's given stuff to him in a life trust and her savings other wise he would have inherited everything and that would have made things impossible ?
What things would be impossible if she's left it to him anyway !

A trust can be complicated and some were used in the past as a way of ring-fencing her IHT allowance amount from being used for his future care-home fee assessments(or viceversa). However I think Law has changed re. IHT anyway so that the allowance can pass between spouses and it sounds as if care-home fee assessment is irrelevant in his case as he is self funding. How long ago was this will made?

Who is paying the care home fees and are you sure there is enough money to continue paying them?

Can you view the will by downloading it from the probate registry? It costs c£3 I think.

That might help you understand what's happening I guess

I can't see the will yet no
And I do know they definatly are not trying to get out of paying care home fees.
I think it's more about control.
Joe helped the mum to do this asset split in her will to allow the money to go back to her husband but it's his money
What difference would it mean if she hadn't done this and he just inherited it normally through a mirror will with no poa and denwmtia

Effectively the trustees would control how the money and assets in the trust are used rather than them being available to him alone. It may be that the purpose is to provide for the husband’s ongoing care needs. Is Joe a trustee? Are there others?

What makes you think there are trustees?

POA has absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with the will and/or its executors.

It’s possible for the same person to have POA and be an executor of a will, but both of those have to be decided by (in this case) the mother and organised via two different processes.

It may be that the same solicitor drew up the POA and the will, but they are still two entirely separate things.