Has my brother taken my share of inheritance

[luckylady22]

So my DF passed away a few months ago and both my DB and I were power of attorney but only he was registered with DF bank and I have never had any access to bank accounts or really interfered in his financial affairs but now I'm concerned that money has been in a bank account that I've not been told about as there was only 1 bank account with pension etc going into and d/ds coming out of but no savings accounts and my DF was always very shrewd with his money and had been the beneficiary of his DB estate which included land about 15 years ago so I'm sure he would have had quite a bit put away and also he had shares but don't know what has happened to them ? I don't want to come across as money grabbing but when I try and talk to my DB about it he is very vague with me
He has also recently been spending a lot more money than normal and I've just got a horrible feeling he has taken money from an account that I've not known anything about and wonder if anyone knows how I can find out if there were other accounts ?
There was a will and everything was left to both me and DB

Clearly got something to hide.

My parents had a very modest income, I’m talking blue collar worker and dinner lady. Dad had very small private pensions totally about £3k a year and mums state pension was reduced.

They had about 100k in savings when my dad passed away.

My money is on there being some substantial savings that have been “borrowed”.

The longer you wait the less chance you'll find anything. The suggestion of an asset search sounds good.
PigletJohn is who I want in my team in the zombie apocalypse.

Act quickly.

Also, to the pp piglet John is in my team, hands off.

I have just been trying to let it go because I can't bear to think that DB would do that but things just don't add up and there is a significant change in recent spending so it's been niggling away at me
I am going to speak to solicitor and will then have another conversation with DB it's all very difficult though

I know it’s not a nice thought but of course there’s a chance your brother may have been abusing his POA before your DF passed away. I have seen this before and unfortunately it’s tricky when the person has passed away as even if evidence is seen eg bank accounts with large unexplained withdrawals, the person could just say that the account holder wanted them to do it.

I think without any evidence you are going to struggle.
The only thing would be if you find any paperwork when going through your fathers things that would help you track his shares and any other bank accounts he had.

Ideally as power of attorney you should have had access to all accounts and understood your dads financial arrangements and be able to monitor for any issues.

Have you sorted through your dads things yet? Before spending money on a solicitor get as many facts as you can - and sounds like unlikely to get the full picture from your brother.
Anyone else that would know about your dads finances? Accountant or friend?

@NautaOcts

I know it’s not a nice thought but of course there’s a chance your brother may have been abusing his POA before your DF passed away. I have seen this before and unfortunately it’s tricky when the person has passed away as even if evidence is seen eg bank accounts with large unexplained withdrawals, the person could just say that the account holder wanted them to do it.

I think without any evidence you are going to struggle.
The only thing would be if you find any paperwork when going through your fathers things that would help you track his shares and any other bank accounts he had.

Ideally as power of attorney you should have had access to all accounts and understood your dads financial arrangements and be able to monitor for any issues.

I was thinking the same. I know someone who abused the POA with their father's estate. They used his capital and investments to pay care home fees and spent his pension income and attendance allowance on their own lifestyle. In that case, the people who lost out were their own children. The GC's were supposed to inherit all the money that was left and their parents got the house, but there was only about £2k left from a sum in excess of £200k. The other executor was horrified, as their children had lost out too.

However, given that a POA is put in place to stop someone acting unwisely when they start to lose mental capacity, doesn't the person appointed have a duty to make sure that they don't just do what the donor wants if it is unwise? So just saying the donor wanted them to make large, random withdrawals surely wouldn't wash if this was flagged up with the Court of Protection or whoever oversees this stuff.

You can ask for 6 years of bank statements, sent to your house and your DB won't need to know about it.
This may give info on other accounts.
Also there is a place to write to, that finds other accounts.

@LakieLady
Yes definitely if the person is alive and is deemed not to have capacity then the POA has a duty to act in their best interests and if are concerns they aren’t then the court of protection will investigate and it would also be considered a safeguarding concern so the LA might be involved.

The problem can be that often POA have access before someone loses capacity or when it’s a bit borderline. Once the person has deceased it’s obviously then difficult to prove if they had capacity at the time and for example consented to gifting one of their children lots of money.