Hidden money

My husband was my mother’s POA for finaces. She also made put him in control of and estate trust that she set up for me. She was diagnosed with alzheimer’s 17 years ago. Had she been in her right mind she would have revoked it long ago. she passed away in June. within hours he had cleaned out her checking account. He had already had her tax return placed directly into our account. Since he was telling me he was leaving I told him to put most of it back in her account so I would have it to use. I planned to file for guardianship and take away his POA. He used the money for our taxes and told his lawyer that I took the money. I can prove and have proved itto my lawyer that I did not. He is only showing his lawyer the part he wants him to see. I printed out the entire statements from all accounts concerned. My lawyer actually told me to let him have the money. Not going to happen. He has not paid me any support since he left and I am not able to purchase my medications and groceries. she has not fought for support for me yet and had the gall to tell me that his latest offer of $300/mo with me taking over car payment, car insurance, phone bill, health insurance… is more than most would do. the man makes $107,000/yr and we were married 34 yr and I am disabled.

When Mom died and I saw he had taken the money I told him to put it back. He countered with on lie after another and I can prove he lied. I have the statements from the bank and nursing home and funeral. He declared that he had been Oked for executor of her will and made sure that all money coming in went straight into his account. I have been objecting about this and his right to be executor considering his mishandling of her money, his abuse of me, his abandonment of me and much more. Today my lawyer finally told me that he had not qualified to be her executor. He had put in a seperation agreement list that he was willing to hand the job over to me and now I find its because he has to.

What do I do to get his bank account statements and ge past the blocks he set up to me getting infformation? He has already recieved her insurance, death benifits, last SS and retirement payments and a few other odds and end pyaments and reimbursements from the nursing home. His last statement was that I might get about $1000 and I know of $6000. He even tried to add our son’s airline ticket home to her expenses.

He also mortgaged the home that was in the trust in 1991 and I didn’t know about it until it was sold a couple of years ago. then he took the last $23,000 check from me by force. He has refused to account for the money. I know at one time he talked about useing money that was in the account seperate from the house to pay for a trip to europe for me and since it was paying for me he should have his way paid out of it too… I said NO and that was the last time he let me see or find out what was happening. Other than taxes which were paid by our daughter while she lived in the house, ther were no expenses there. I am being told to forget about the whole thing and let him have the money. why??

He has it stashed somewhere. He has NOT spent $170,000 on me. Until I was on disability I helped pay bills and I paid for every piece of furniture in the house and all remodling.
I am at the point that I am willing to have him arrested if he will not give an accounting of the money. He also took my retirement check that had to be taken out of the state since I was not tenured. He put it in stock in his name. at one time he showed me the stock was worth $98,000. then nothing for years. then he sold part and the last time he showed me it was worth over $100,000. then he told me years later that he hadn’t sold it and it had gone down to $23,000. His cousin told me that he had bragged about having money. He is not disclosing any stocks or savings. It has to be there. We have not spent that type of money. How do I find out what is going on? My lawyer is doing nothing.

First off, I am sorry to hear of your loss and what you are going through now.

With respect to your mother’s estate issues, you need to hire a separate attorney regarding that issue. Your divorce lawyer may not be skilled in that area.

If your attorney is not acting according to your wishes and relative to your needs you may want to consider hiring a new one. I can’t say what a reasonable amount of support would be without having all the facts, but $300 per month and a $107,000 income on the part of the payor does seem inconsistent to me.

With respect to the home sold in 1991, unless you can prove the 23k was used to purchase another piece of property or has been secreted away, there is nothing you can do. It is not unreasonable to think that 23k could have been dissipated with normal expenses over the past 19 years.

You cannot have him arrested for failure to provide an accounting, but may file for discovery, and if it goes unanswered, file a motion to compel. If it goes on long enough and he wilfully refuses to turn over documents after being ordered to do so by a judge, a judge may, at his or her discretion order that he be jailed until he cooperated.