Help, big time and ASAP, if someone knows this one off the top of their heads........

Our customer died Sunday, September 11, 2005. The newspaper said the guy's funeral was at 11 a.m. this morning.
At 12:30 p.m., today we had the POA on the account come into the bank and present us with a Certificate of Trust summarizing a Revocable Living Trust document dated July, 2005. The Certificate of Trust indicates that she was the trustee of the revocable living trust (no reference to successor trustee, but that point might be moot). She also prepared the Certificate of Trust. I do not know if she is a lawyer.

My questions are as follows:
1. The bank's records read this guy (single accounts) with this woman as his POA. The accounts make no reference to his living trust. Can someone show up with the revocable living trust documents AFTER the grantor has died? Isn't it too late?
2. Shouldn't the accounts have been changed to the Revocable Living Trust ownership PRIOR to his death? Shouldn't these accounts be considered single ownership accounts and subject to probate proceedings?????? She is going to be an unhappy camper if this is the case, but I want to get this right because there is over $100M in his various accounts.........

I think that you would be correct in your assessment. I would suggest that you contact legal counsel to be sure, but my experience would indicate that if the account had not been modified at the time of death, it would be too late for someone acting under a POA for the person who died to make a change.

Hogfan, thank you for the response. Three clarifications since I first posted;
1. The woman is a lawyer
2. She never mentioned to our banker that the guy died on Sunday
3. She approached the bank acting as "trustee" under the Revocable Living Trust and said she wanted the account name changed. The Certificate of Trust (prepared last week) states the she was the "Original Trustee"..... she doen't mention "Sucessor trustee(s) in the Certificate of Trust.

I am not a lawyer, but this is my opinion.
Assuming she is the trustee, she would have no authority over the accounts since they are not trust assets.

My advice is contact you legal department ASAP.

We have had this similar situation and the fact that this is a lawyer attempting to move assets into the Trust after the Grantor is deceased just plain disgusts me. She knows the laws - she is obviously choosing to ignore them.

As the previous posts suggest you should definately let your council know about this situation and don't take direction from this lawyer. You should probably look closely at any other dealings she may have had with your bank as well. If you have more than one branch perhaps a "head's up" to notify the other locations is in order.

Good Luck

Anon #426793,
You understand things pretty well. 1) She may have been the POA prior to death, but she's not now. 2) A living trust controls assets delivered to the trustee prior to death. After death, additional assets can be delivered to the trust by a "pour over" provision in a will; i.e. a will that names the trust as a beneficiary.

A former POA certainly cannot deliver assets into a trust after the principal's death. For whatever reason, they messed up.

She may be a lawyer, but she's not your lawyer. Talk to your lawyer, but I suggest you leave the accounts in the name of the decedent and indicate a profound willingness to turn them over to the personal representative of the decedent's estate when you receive a copy of the order of appointment.

I agree with Ken. A POA expires automatically upon the death of the account holder. Since the account can only be accessed by someone with appropriate authority (in this case, either a court approved administrator or executor of the estate)any talk of a trust is irrelevent.