[Trust but Verify]

The aunt used the POA to gain access to the bank accounts of grandma and distributed everything. She and her sister took anything of value from the house and left us with the rest. She knew and never told my husband he was the executor. Both of them had copies of the will but we did not. For the past year we have been paying the expenses of the house out of our own pockets. Property taxes, insurance, utilities, lawn care, snow removal.

[HighWheeler]

I have heard that happens quite often when an uniformed, control-freak type person is given POA.

They take full advantage of the situation, and think that the person's will is just a refrigerator-note reminder, and don't realize it is a full blown legal document.

These can be sorted out without an attorney as in the case of a friend's family, or with an attorney in the case of a neighbor's family. The second is quite messy, and is usually required when the POA person is a bull-headed obnoxious jerk.

[William Terrell]

It may be important to recovery if the auntie distributed anything before your grandmother-in-law passed away. The POA will have been in force until then.

[Swordmaker]

The aunt used the POA to gain access to the bank accounts of grandma and distributed everything.

Most bank accounts are "frozen" at death, pending probate. The bank that allowed the aunt to access the account may have some culpability and liability in the draining of the accounts.