My husband's grandmother was elderly and in a nursing home. She had a woman who helped her and she gave her power of attorney. I know the woman was in my grandmother's safe deposit box a couple of times. My grandmother died on 7/14. On 7/18, this woman showed up at the lawyer's office along with us, and handed the lawyer a brown paper bag and told him she emptied and closed the safe deposit box (no need for us to keep paying on it she said). My grandmother told me there was a diamond ring and necklace in there, which were not in the paper bag. I also knew that she had CDs in there, which the woman also turned over to the lawyer. The lawyer sent us a letter recently saying all the CDs had this woman's name as POD. My husband is the joint executor of the Will (along with the lawyer's wife). When did that woman's responsibilites end? Did she have the right to close the safe deposit box? Is there any way she could have changed the names on the CDs. The whole thing smells fishy to me.
Since this is an estate issue and you have an attorney involved, you should be getting your advice from that person who is knowledgeable about the entire affair. You should realize that the bank had no idea what was in the box. If you want to dispute that, you need to do so with the woman who had access to the box. When your grandmother passed, her Power of Attorney would have become void for future use. If the bank was unaware of her passing, they likely honored the POA in good faith. You will also need to ask the bank if any account changes were made using the POA. Adding oneself to an account because a POA is in hand would be unusual. The bank's records will clearly indicate when the POD was added. Perhaps knowing this date will cast some light on the honesty of this person and your suspicions about missing items from the box.
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