Surprised at when Power of Attorney ends.

Imho, if the decedent has a will, the executor of the will takes over. I am so sorry for the loss of your sister and send deepest condolences.

Ye, it is the same in Indiana. I read a book published by nolo about being executor to estates. It should be a law that lawyers writing poas forewarn poa designee s what will happen when someone dies. Since I read the book, I transferred a bunch of my mother's money into an empty account in my name to pay the bills prior to her death through my tablet. The bank freezes deceased s accounts..we have to wait for probate court to assign me as executor, then i have to get the bank to cooperate..in the meantime..you get to pay the bills out of your own pocket unless you have siphoned money into a new account..its crazy. I'm sorry for your shock and loss.

Note to Willmartin: POA automatically ends at death, nothing to do with what someone did. It is fact. I was surprised to learn this too when my Mom passed, but thankfully we had a joint checking account for a couple years.

I am the original writer of this post. The information everyone has given is priceless and amazing. Thank all of you for your EARNED wisdom. Sounds like many of you have been through a lot of hassle and red tape to learn how to manage this situation. I spoke to my brother yesterday and he seems organized and has an appointment with my deceased sister's attorney to go over the will. I still do not know if an executor is designated in the will. My sister went to great lengths to have her living will and POA documents ready for her last days, and I can only hope the attorney who prepared her documents was wise enough to allow for the possibility of her needing an executor. I will know soon. My brother has been VERY stressed over this whole event, and I hesitate to press him with a lot of questions. He has handled everything perfectly, albeit slowly, from when she was disabled until now. He is 77 years old and in good health physically and mentally, but...he's still 77 and this is hard on him. I am also in my 70s. I can't thank you all enough for answering my post. Bless you all.

OldAlto, I'm sorry for the loss of your sister and understand how confusing everything can be. I appreciate that you've taken the time to keep this forum's readers up to date on your brother's progress in dealing with your sister's bills and estate and it sounds like solid progress is being made -- this progress may seem slow, but that's almost always the case with formal probate, even with experienced executors.

One legal provision that exists in most states and might help your brother (or other readers), but is often overlooked, is what's known as the "Small Estate" probate shortcuts. Under this provision, estates under a specified dollar limit ($100,000 in Idaho) an heir can bypass the requirement for formal probate filings. Although my guardianship/conservatorship ended upon my dad's death, just like a DPOA would have, using Idaho's "small estate affidavit" allowed me to pay his outstanding bills after his death and then simply transfer his remaining non-trust assets directly into his trust, but I also could have distributed those funds directly to his other heirs if I had wanted to do that. I did not hire an attorney to help me with this as there was no need for one because the "small estate affidavit" standard form was simple and quickly accepted at my dad's financial institutions. Note that assets in my dad's trust did not count toward Idaho's $100,000 "small estate" limit and neither did his life insurances or any other assets with designated beneficiaries. Hope this information is helpful.

Here's a link to one of many descriptions of "small estate" probate shortcuts:
https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/avoid-probate-book/chapter8-2.html

bicycler, thank you so much for that info! I will tell my brother before he goes to see the lawyer next week.

Power of Attorney works to care for things when they become unable to do it themselves. Setting up all accounts - banking, savings, bills, credit cards, shares, IRA's, etc, Life Insurance, etc with a co-signer makes a huge difference. Did she have a will? If your brother is the executor, he will eventually be able to take care of everything. Some states require Probate, unless you have Trusts that don't require that. Insurance policies will pay out to Beneficiaries as soon as the Executor of the Will files the Death certificate. Hope this helps.
Sorry for the loss of your sister.

Lindberg62, good info., but note that it isn't just life insurances that will pay directly to beneficiaries, as all or most other financial accounts (e.g. checking, savings, IRAs, 401ks) can also "pay on death" (POD) to designated beneficiaries without those beneficiaries having to be named as co-signers on the account. Such beneficiaries have to be named by the account holder(s) before death, but the account holder(s) maintain(s) 100% full ownership while still living. One or more persons can be named as POD (e.g. I have one account with 8 people designated as POD, each with a 12.5% share). In addition to primary POD(s), you can also have secondary/contingent POD(s), which is useful just in case you and your primary POD happen to die in the same accident. Finally, as I alluded to in a prior post, designating PODs can often reduce the deceased's remaining assets to below the "small estate" limit, which allows avoidance of legal fees and long delays associated with formal probate.

So sorry for your loss.....my dad passed away this past August but we had everything taken care of at the time of his passing. One very valuable thing that we learned was when it came to his car, it was only in his name so we went and had the title Transferable upon Death to me that way his car would not be held up in probate. He also insisted that I was added to all of his bank accounts....which made it very easy so that I could continue to take care of his remaining bills.

wow thanks, I am POA (and my brother) for our mother. Dad had passed away May 2020. I will check with our Elder Attorney to find out what will happen if our mother passes and we need to pay off any bills, etc.  thanks again

Once your loved one dies, the executor of the estate is responsible for the settlement of debts and any remaining assets to the heirs in accordance with the will. I have been DPOA and executor for my parents, my aunt, and one of our long time neighbors, which made the process fairly seemless.

FYI. In Washington State the Durable Power of Attorney ends when they are notified in writing!

MJ1929 said "Be warned, too, that from this point on, any checks sent to your sister (refunds from cancelled annual payments, for example) have to be made out to "The Estate of" your sister, or the bank won't honor them. I received a check refunding my dad's unused Auto Club payment, and the bank wouldn't take it."

Honestly this is what I understood had to be done, based on finishing off handling my mother's cousin's estate (her sister was first exec, but passed a year and a day later, leaving a HUGE mess!) However, as an update to my original post:

1) Getting the EIN online, once they finished their updates and the online tool stabilized, was simple and quick. You don't need an attorney to get an EIN. Yes, by mail takes time, online it was minutes for me.

2) NONE of the checks sent were made out "to the estate of...", not even the $600 stimulus from the IRS! It was clear they knew she passed as normally this would have been electronic deposit. I was concerned these checks would be an issue, but I was finally approved to be exec, opened an account (estate, using EIN for tax ID) at a local bank and deposited them, no problem. I have done NO business with this bank before. Not sure why MJ1929 was refused. Was the account to deposit into an estate account? We're not talking pocket money here - the biggest check was refund** of the MC deposit, fairly big dollar amount!

**Funny note on that - because I had to wait for court approval, I couldn't open the account or deposit the checks. I don't know why it would take so long to process once I did deposit them, but the person handling this at the facility called me maybe 2 weeks after I deposited everything, asking if I received the check. The bank that issued the refund was questioning it.

3) Once approved, I used the online tool at the CU where mom's SS Rep Payee funds were deposited to send a copy of the DC and the appointment as exec, and requested the remaining funds to be sent "to the estate of..." and close the account. All that was left was the required amount to originally open it, which wasn't even SS money, and a bit of interest. Check was sent and deposited, CU account was closed.

4) I'm at the point where the court email says I owe them an accounting of what assets there are (basically only these refunds and interest, still waiting for potential tax refund before submitting that) and an accounting of any debts, bills, etc. The only owed funds are to me, for the court filing fee and the postage to mail the will and DC. It is a pain in the butt to resubmit if it changes, so I'm waiting this time until the tax refund is done!

As others have said, it is good to have the following:

1) POA for financial and medical - secondary for backup is good idea too.

2) If not joint on primary account (there are reasons for not doing this), at least have another account that IS joint, with enough funds for emergencies, like paying for a burial.

3) A pre-paid burial/funeral plan would be awesome to have!

4) A will naming executors and priorities (ours was joint so I had ping bro to get him to sign a declination form and submit that document, resulting in delay - it's better if only one is named primary, but good to have a backup, just in case.)

5) If there are substantial assets (liquid, not property per se), it would be a good idea to set up an irrevocable trust. It protects those assets from unscrupulous people and the LO if they have dementia or try to spend it on stupid things! Makes like easier at TOD - no probate required for that!

Once the trust and mom's taxes are done, hopefully this week, I need to ask him about the estate account tax filing. The original paperwork I was presented with mentioned filing by April 15, 2021... I know the date moved, but we're filing the 2020 taxes NOW. The funds in the estate account only just went in last month and per court information I saw, the funds have to sit there for at least 6 months. I would expect this all to be filed in 2022.