Someone You Trusted Has a Power of Attorney
and the money is disappearing
Here is what to do about it.

In 2017, a Florida woman named Joanna Dillon was sentenced to 30 years in prison after using a power of attorney to steal more than $800,000 from her 88-year-old employer over several years. She changed beneficiary designations, forged checks, and transferred real estate — all using a document her employer had signed in good faith. By the time anyone noticed, the victim had almost nothing left. This is not a fringe case. The National Adult Protective Services Association estimates that financial elder abuse costs American seniors somewhere between $2.9 billion and $36.5 billion annually, and a power of attorney is one of the most commonly exploited instruments involved.

This article is for anyone who suspects an agent is misusing a loved one's POA, anyone who wants to understand what legal limits actually apply to an agent, and anyone who needs to know how to act fast when something looks wrong. The law here is genuinely useful — but only if you know what levers to pull.

What a Power of Attorney Actually Allows — and What It Forbids

A power of attorney is a legal document in which one person (the principal) authorizes another person (the agent, sometimes called the attorney-in-fact) to act on their behalf. The scope can be narrow — signing a single real estate transaction — or sweeping, covering finances, healthcare, and legal decisions across an indefinite period.

The most dangerous version for abuse purposes is the durable power of attorney, which stays valid even if the principal later loses mental capacity. A standard (non-durable) POA automatically terminates the moment the principal becomes incapacitated. That distinction matters enormously: most elder financial abuse occurs after the principal has lost the cognitive ability to monitor what the agent is doing.

Regardless of how broad the document is, every agent in every U.S. state operates under a fiduciary duty. That means they are legally required to act in the principal's best interest, keep their own money strictly separate from the principal's money, keep records of every transaction, and avoid self-dealing. An agent cannot give themselves a gift from the principal's estate unless the document explicitly authorizes it. They cannot change the principal's will. In most states they cannot change beneficiary designations on life insurance or retirement accounts unless the POA explicitly grants that power.

The Uniform Power of Attorney Act, adopted in some form by about 25 states including Colorado, Alabama, and Virginia, codifies these duties clearly and makes violations easier to prosecute. In states that have not adopted it — California uses its own Probate Code sections 4000–4545, for example — the protections are similar but the procedural path to enforcement differs. Knowing which framework applies to your situation determines which court you file in and which statutes you cite.

The Warning Signs That Are Actually Diagnostic

Not every unusual financial move is abuse. A principal might legitimately ask their agent to make a large gift, pay off a debt, or restructure investments. The warning signs worth acting on are patterns, not isolated events — and they look different depending on whether the principal still has capacity.

Financial red flags

• Unexplained withdrawals from checking or savings accounts, especially in round numbers or just under reporting thresholds (structuring transactions below $10,000 to avoid bank reporting is itself a federal crime).
• New or changed account signatories that the principal cannot explain or does not seem aware of.
• Unpaid bills despite the principal having sufficient assets — utilities cut off, property taxes in arrears, prescriptions going unfilled.
• Property transfers to the agent or the agent's relatives, especially when the principal received no payment or an obviously below-market price.
• Sudden changes to estate documents — a will amendment, a new trust, or changed beneficiaries on life insurance or a 401(k), made around the time the agent took control.

Behavioral red flags

• The principal is never available alone. The agent answers questions on their behalf, intercepts phone calls, or controls who visits.
• The principal appears frightened, confused, or unusually deferential in the agent's presence but not when speaking privately.
• The agent becomes hostile or evasive when family members or advisors ask basic questions about the principal's finances.
• The principal says things like "I'm not allowed to talk about that" or seems unable to recall transactions they should remember.

Document red flags

• The POA itself was signed when the principal was already showing signs of cognitive decline — a lawyer, a notary, or a physician who knew the principal at that time may be able to speak to capacity.
• The document was drafted by the agent or the agent's attorney, rather than by independent counsel retained by the principal.
• Witness signatures are missing, or the witnesses are people who stand to benefit.

Who Is Most Vulnerable and Why Professionals Miss It

The stereotype of POA abuse involves a stranger preying on a lonely elder. The reality is that roughly 90 percent of substantiated elder financial abuse is committed by someone the victim knows — most often an adult child, a spouse, a sibling, or a paid caregiver. That family relationship is precisely why detection is so slow. Banks, physicians, and attorneys all assume that a family member acting under a POA is doing so lovingly. They are wrong often enough that it should change how these professionals are trained.

Cognitive decline is the central vulnerability factor. A person with moderate Alzheimer's disease may appear coherent in a brief conversation but be entirely unable to track whether their bills are paid or whether their agent took $40,000 from their account last month. The National Institute on Aging notes that financial judgment often deteriorates before more obvious symptoms of dementia appear — meaning a person can seem fine to a bank teller while being completely unable to evaluate what their agent is doing.

Geographic isolation compounds this. Adult children who live across the country and visit infrequently are often the last to notice because they have no baseline to compare. A sibling who lives nearby and controls all daily contact has months or years of undetected access.

There is also a shame problem. Many victims are reluctant to report abuse by a family member because they fear being placed in a nursing home, losing the relationship, or simply cannot believe the person they love is stealing from them. Researchers at Cornell University studying elder financial abuse found that victims reported only about 1 in 44 cases of financial exploitation to authorities. That number is not a reason for pessimism; it is a reason to act when you do notice something, because the formal system almost never hears about it otherwise.

Immediate Steps to Take If You Suspect Abuse

Speed matters more than certainty here. You do not need proof before you act; you need reasonable suspicion. Taking protective steps early preserves options that disappear once assets are spent or transferred.

1. Speak privately with the principal, away from the agent. If the principal has capacity, ask direct, non-leading questions: who manages their money, have they seen their bank statements lately, are all their bills being paid. Take notes on what they say and when.
2. Request bank records. If you are a family member but not the agent, you cannot demand records on your own authority. However, if the principal has capacity, they can request and share their own statements. If capacity is in question, consult an elder law attorney immediately about what access options exist.
3. Contact Adult Protective Services (APS) in the principal's state. Every state has an APS agency, and most accept anonymous reports. APS can investigate, make unannounced visits, and in some states can freeze accounts or seek emergency guardianship. Find your state's APS through the Eldercare Locator at eldercare.acl.gov, which is run by the U.S. Administration on Aging.
4. Report to the principal's bank. Under the federal Elder Justice Act and similar state laws, financial institutions are increasingly trained to flag suspicious transactions. A branch manager or bank's elder financial exploitation team can place alerts on accounts, delay large transfers, and in some states are required to report suspected exploitation to APS. Some banks — notably Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and others that participate in AARP's BankSafe training — have dedicated protocols for this.
5. Consult an elder law attorney. The National Academy of Elder Law Attorneys (NAELA) maintains a searchable directory at naela.org. An elder law attorney can file an emergency petition for guardianship or conservatorship, seek an injunction to freeze asset transfers, and advise on whether the existing POA is even valid.
6. Preserve evidence. Screenshot or photograph any documents you have access to. Note dates, amounts, and anything the principal told you. This becomes the foundation of a civil or criminal case.

Do not confront the agent directly before taking protective legal steps. An agent who knows they are suspected may move money quickly or destroy records. The bank alert and APS report should happen before any confrontation.

Legal Tools to Stop Abuse and Recover Assets

Once you have documentation and legal counsel, there are several distinct legal mechanisms available, and they are not mutually exclusive. Using more than one simultaneously is often the right strategy.

Revocation

If the principal still has mental capacity, they can revoke the POA at any time by signing a written revocation, delivering it to the agent, and notifying any institution that has been relying on the document. This is the cleanest solution when capacity exists. The revocation should be notarized and filed wherever the original POA was recorded (if it was recorded at all). A new POA naming a different, trustworthy agent should be executed at the same time.

Guardianship or Conservatorship

When the principal lacks capacity to revoke the POA, a court can appoint a guardian (for personal decisions) or a conservator (for financial decisions). This is a formal legal proceeding, typically in probate court, and it requires evidence that the principal cannot manage their own affairs. Once a conservator is appointed, the agent's authority under the POA is generally superseded. This route takes weeks to months and costs legal fees, but it puts a court-supervised person in control of the principal's assets.

Civil Lawsuit Against the Agent

An agent who breaches their fiduciary duty is liable for civil damages. A lawsuit can seek return of the stolen assets, consequential damages, and in some states punitive damages or attorney's fees when the conduct was particularly egregious. Some states — California, for instance, under Welfare and Institutions Code Section 15657 — provide for enhanced remedies in elder financial abuse cases specifically, including mandatory attorney's fees if you prevail. Civil litigation is expensive and slow, but it is the primary mechanism for recovering money that has already been spent or transferred.

Criminal Prosecution

Many states have specific elder financial abuse statutes that make POA abuse a felony. California Penal Code Section 368, Florida Statute 825.103, and New York Penal Law Section 155 all provide elevated charges when the victim is an elder or a vulnerable adult. You cannot file criminal charges yourself — you report to local law enforcement or the district attorney's office, and they decide whether to prosecute. Criminal conviction does not automatically return stolen money, but restitution orders are often part of sentencing, and the threat of prosecution sometimes motivates return of assets before trial.

State Attorney General

Most state attorneys general have elder protection units that investigate financial abuse and can bring civil enforcement actions. These are free to you and can move faster than private litigation in some states. The AARP Fraud Watch Network (fraud.aarp.org) can also direct you to state-specific resources and provide free guidance by phone.

How to Write a POA That Is Harder to Abuse

If you are setting up a power of attorney now, before any crisis, you have real options to build in protections that most people never use because they do not know they exist. An ounce of prevention here is genuinely worth a great deal.

Use a limited or springing POA where possible. A springing POA only becomes effective when a specified condition — usually a physician's certification of incapacity — is met. This limits the window during which an agent has unchecked authority. The tradeoff is administrative friction: banks may require a physician's letter before honoring the document, which can slow things down in a real emergency. If you choose a durable POA for convenience, the monitoring mechanisms below become more important.

Name a co-agent or require dual signatures. Requiring two agents to sign off on transactions above a threshold — say, any single transaction over $5,000 — is a structural check on unilateral action. Many standard POA forms do not include this, but any competent estate planning attorney can draft it in.

Appoint an independent monitor. Some POA documents include a provision naming a separate person — not the agent — who receives copies of account statements and can demand an accounting. This is not a standard feature of off-the-shelf forms, but it is entirely legal and extremely effective. The monitor has no decision-making power; they just watch.

Build in mandatory accounting. The document can require the agent to provide a written accounting to a named third party — another family member, an attorney, an accountant — on a set schedule, such as quarterly. Agents who know they must account regularly self-police at a much higher rate.

See a real attorney. Online POA forms from sites like LegalZoom or Rocket Lawyer are better than nothing, but they cannot advise you. An estate planning attorney costs between roughly $200 and $500 for a standalone POA in most markets, and they can tailor the document to your actual family situation. That fee is trivial compared to the cost of litigation over a poorly drafted document.

Tell your bank. After executing the POA, sit down with your bank's branch manager and discuss what circumstances should trigger a call to a family member before large transactions are processed. Some banks maintain informal alert lists for this purpose, separate from any legal requirement.

When the System Fails: What Advocates and Researchers Say Still Needs to Change

The honest reality is that the legal system handles POA abuse poorly in most jurisdictions. Guardianship proceedings are expensive, slow, and often feel adversarial and traumatizing for the principal. Criminal prosecution of family members is rare — prosecutors are reluctant, victims often recant, and courts are skeptical of cases that look like family disputes. Civil litigation can take years. And APS agencies are chronically underfunded: a 2022 report from the Government Accountability Office found that most state APS programs lack standardized data collection, making it impossible to even measure outcomes at a national level.

Researchers like Dr. Naomi Karp at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau have spent years documenting the gap between the scale of the problem and the capacity of existing institutions to address it. The CFPB itself published a series of reports on elder financial exploitation between 2012 and 2019, and their policy recommendations — better bank training, stronger mandatory reporting laws, centralized state databases tracking POA documents — have been adopted patchily at best.

Some states are doing better. Maine enacted a POA registry in 2022, allowing notarized POAs to be filed with the Secretary of State, which makes fraudulent or revoked documents easier to catch. Virginia's 2010 adoption of the Uniform Power of Attorney Act created clearer agent duties and stronger court remedies. These are genuine improvements, but they are not uniform.

What this means practically: if you are trying to stop ongoing abuse, do not wait for the system to catch up. Report to APS and law enforcement, but simultaneously pursue civil legal remedies through private counsel. The combination of a conservatorship petition and a civil lawsuit for breach of fiduciary duty is the most effective pressure an injured party can currently bring. It is not cheap, and it is not fast. But it is the realistic path to stopping the bleeding and getting money back.