If I am a POA for my mother can I add someone as a beneficiary on her accounts at my bank? I was told I could not add myself.
When a person (known as the principal) executes a Power of Attorney, that person is appointing someone as an attorney-in-fact. An attorney-in-fact is simply an agent, someone who is supposed to take action on behalf of, and for the benefit of, the principal. The actual scope of the attorney-in-fact's powers will depend upon the language of the Power of Attorney document. It can be extremely broad, or very narrow.
In this instance, your mother is the principal. You are the attorney-in-fact (AIF).
What you are asking about, specifically, is whether an AIF can add a beneficiary to the principal's accounts. That is considered to be making a gift from the assets of the principal. Essentially, if you take an individual account owned by the principal and then convert it to a joint account, with right of survivorship, or you add a Payable-on-Death beneficiary, you have set it up so that upon the principal's death, the joint owner (or the POD beneficiary) would be given the funds.
The right to make a gift from the principal's funds is generally not a right the attorney-in-fact has under court decisions in most states, unless it is specifically mentioned in the POA document. If your mother is still competent, she could add you as a beneficiary, or she could amend the Power of Attorney to specifically give you the power. If it's not in the POA document, your mother's the only one with the power to change or add beneficiaries or joint owners on her own accounts.
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When a person (known as the principal) executes a 