Financial Exploitation & POA Abuse in PA

A power of attorney puts one person in control of another person's money. Most agents handle that power honestly. Some do not. If you are watching an agent, often a sibling or a new "friend," move money out of a parent's accounts, Pennsylvania law gives you real tools: a court-ordered accounting, removal of the agent, a surcharge to recover what was taken, and, when the conduct is criminal, prosecution. This page walks through each tool and how it works in Bucks County.

Warning Signs of POA Abuse

Families usually sense the problem before they can prove it. Patterns we see in exploitation cases include:

• Unexplained withdrawals, transfers, or ATM activity that does not match the parent's spending habits
• The parent's bills going unpaid (utilities, taxes, care facility invoices) while money leaves the accounts
• New names added to bank accounts or deeds, or beneficiary designations changed late in life
• The agent isolating the parent: screening calls, blocking visits, sitting in on every conversation
• A new will, POA, or trust signed after the parent began to decline mentally
• The agent's own lifestyle improving (new car, paid-off debts) with no visible source of income
• Refusal to answer basic questions about the parent's finances, or vague answers like "it is all being handled"

Any one of these can have an innocent explanation. Several together usually do not. If the transfers trace back to a document the parent signed under pressure, our legal update on undue influence in Pennsylvania explains how those documents get challenged.

The Agent's Duties Under Pennsylvania Law

An agent under a Pennsylvania power of attorney is a fiduciary, and the duties are statutory, not optional. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5601.3(a), the agent must act in accordance with the principal's reasonable expectations (or, if unknown, the principal's best interest), act in good faith, and act only within the scope of authority the document actually grants. Those three duties apply notwithstanding anything the POA says.

Unless the document provides otherwise, § 5601.3(b) adds more: the agent must act loyally for the principal's benefit, keep the agent's funds separate from the principal's, avoid conflicts of interest that impair impartial judgment, act with the care and diligence of an ordinary agent in similar circumstances, keep a record of all receipts, disbursements, and transactions, and attempt to preserve the principal's estate plan. An agent who "borrows" from Mom's account, pays personal bills with her debit card, or transfers her house into his own name without express authority is violating these duties. Gifting in particular requires specific language in the document; our page on elder care POA requirements explains the gifting and self-dealing rules in detail.

Demanding Records and an Accounting

Start with the recordkeeping duty. Section 5601.3(b)(4) requires the agent to keep records of every transaction. Section 5601.3(d) then lists who can demand disclosure of those records: the principal, a guardian, a conservator, another fiduciary acting for the principal, a governmental agency with authority to protect the principal's welfare, or, after death, the personal representative or successor in interest of the principal's estate. A court can also order disclosure. When a proper request is made, the agent has 30 days to comply or to explain in writing why more time is needed, with an additional 30 days after that.

Notice who is missing from that list: a worried son or daughter with no fiduciary role. That is the trap most families hit. The fix is the court. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5610, an agent must file a formal account of the administration whenever the court directs, and the account is filed with the clerk in the county where the principal resides. For a Bucks County parent, that means a petition to the Orphans' Court Division in Doylestown asking the court to direct the agent to account. The court can assess the costs of the accounting proceeding as it considers appropriate, including the costs of preparing and filing the account, and in practice that allocation can fall on the agent. A formal account puts every transaction on the table, under oath, where objections can be filed.

Petitioning the Orphans' Court

The Orphans' Court is the right forum. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 711(22), all matters pertaining to the exercise of powers by agents under powers of attorney fall within the Orphans' Court Division's mandatory jurisdiction. A single petition can ask for several forms of relief: an order compelling the account described above, an order restraining the agent from further transactions while the case is pending, terminating the agent's authority, and a surcharge for the losses.

Revocation itself depends on the principal's condition. A principal who still has capacity can revoke the POA in writing and name a new agent, and often that plus prompt notice to the banks is the fastest way to stop the bleeding. When the principal no longer has capacity to revoke, the court supplies the remedy: it can end the agent's authority in a guardianship order, and it can police the agent's conduct through the accounting and surcharge process. The following is general information, not legal advice for your situation; the right sequence of filings depends on the facts, and a misstep can tip off the agent, so talk to a lawyer before you act.

Guardianship as the Backstop

When the parent can no longer protect himself or herself and the POA is the problem, guardianship is the backstop. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5511(a), any person interested in the alleged incapacitated person's welfare, which includes a concerned child, may petition the Orphans' Court, and the court may appoint a guardian of the person or estate on clear and convincing evidence of incapacity. The alleged incapacitated person gets notice, appointed counsel if none is retained, and a hearing.

Guardianship interacts directly with the POA. Under 20 Pa.C.S. § 5604(c), once a guardian of the estate is appointed, the agent becomes accountable to the guardian as well as the principal, and the court must determine in its guardianship order whether, and to what extent, the durable power of attorney remains in effect. In an exploitation case, that is the mechanism for putting a trustworthy fiduciary in charge and cutting off the abusive agent's authority. The process, timeline, and costs are covered on our guardianship of incapacitated persons page.

Surcharge: Pursuing the Money

Stopping the agent is half the job. The other half is the money. A surcharge is the Orphans' Court remedy that holds a fiduciary, including an agent under a POA, personally liable for losses caused by breach of fiduciary duty. Surcharge claims are typically raised as objections once the agent's account is filed: each improper withdrawal, gift, or transfer is identified, and the court can order the agent to repay it from the agent's own funds. Where the agent moved real estate or titled assets into his own name, the court can also address recovery of the property itself. Whether the money is still recoverable in practice depends on what the agent has left, which is one more reason speed matters.

The burden of proof works in the family's favor here. In In re Beam, 342 A.3d 7 (Pa. Super. 2025), an agent had drained more than $140,000 from her great aunt's accounts, kept withdrawing for five months after the death, and filed an account that explained none of it. The Superior Court reversed the lower court for surcharging only a fraction of that sum: once an accounting is compelled, the agent bears the burden of justifying every disbursement with receipts or equivalent proof, the agent's own unsupported say-so is not enough, and a court may not excuse unexplained withdrawals by speculating they might have been authorized gifts. An agent has no gift-making power at all unless the POA expressly grants it, and the agent's authority ends at the principal's death.

Reporting: Protective Services and the Area Agency on Aging

You do not need a lawyer to make a report, and you should not wait to make one. The Older Adults Protective Services Act, 35 P.S. § 10225.101 et seq., defines exploitation to cover exactly this conduct: an act or course of conduct against an older adult or the older adult's resources, without informed consent, that produces gain for the perpetrator or loss to the older adult. Under 35 P.S. § 10225.302(a), any person with reasonable cause to believe an older adult needs protective services may report to the local agency, which in Bucks County is the Bucks County Area Agency on Aging. Reports can also go to the statewide elder abuse helpline at 1-800-490-8505, which is staffed 24 hours a day. The agency must initiate an investigation within 72 hours of the report (35 P.S. § 10225.303(a)), and a good-faith reporter is immune from civil and criminal liability for making the report (35 P.S. § 10225.302(d)).

When the District Attorney Gets Involved

Serious POA abuse is a crime. Since 2021, Pennsylvania has a dedicated offense: financial exploitation of an older adult or care-dependent person, 18 Pa.C.S. § 3922.1. It applies to a person in a "position of trust," a defined term that expressly includes anyone with a fiduciary obligation through a power of attorney, and it covers the wrongful taking, withholding, or conversion of an older adult's money, assets, or property. An "older adult" is anyone at least 60 years of age. The statute even presumes that a person acting under a POA understands the legal obligations of the POA chapter, so "I did not know I could not do that" is a weak defense.

Grading turns on the amount involved: a misdemeanor of the first degree at the low end, a felony of the third degree above $2,000, a felony of the second degree at $100,000 or more, and a felony of the first degree at $500,000 or more or where the course of conduct victimized two or more older adults. The county district attorney has express authority to investigate and prosecute (18 Pa.C.S. § 3922.1(e)), and the Attorney General has concurrent jurisdiction when the amount exceeds $20,000 (18 Pa.C.S. § 3922.1(d)). In practice, referrals reach the district attorney through the Area Agency on Aging, through the police, or directly from the family. A criminal case can proceed alongside the Orphans' Court case; restitution in the criminal matter and surcharge in the civil matter are separate paths at the same money.

If this is happening in your family, the sequence matters and the window matters. Call 215-949-0888 to talk through the facts and the options for stopping further losses.

Legal and factual content on this page was last verified: Aug. 2026. If you are reading this significantly after that date, confirm key provisions with current statute text or contact our office.