- Pam Davis struggled to get Capital One to recognize her power of attorney.
- Her brother was a victim of a scam, losing nearly all his assets.
- After media intervention, Capital One finally acknowledged her authority resolving the issue.
SANDY — At some point, many of us may have to step in and help a loved one with their money — paying bills, watching accounts or cleaning up after fraud. But what do you do when a major credit card company refuses to recognize your authority over a loved one's finances?
Pam Davis has been looking out for her older brother, Stan.
"My brother has short-term memory and dementia," she said. "So, it became necessary for me to take over."
Davis recently discovered her brother was the target of a brutal pig-butchering scam. A criminal posing as a woman coaxed personal and financial information out of him. Money was taken from his bank accounts, stocks and credit cards.
"It pretty much cost him almost everything he had," Davis said.
She is trying to unwind some of that damage, including the fraudulent purchase of a MacBook Pro on her brother's Capital One credit card. But she says she can't get Capital One to recognize her power of attorney, no matter how many times she sent them the papers.
"I ended up sending them my power of attorney, my conservatorship and my guardianship," Davis said. "Then they requested all of my personal information, including my name, address, phone number, Social Security – the works from me. And still that was not enough for them to talk to me."
She even got a letter from Capital One denying the request to appoint Pam Davis as power of attorney because her brother already has a power of attorney: Pam Davis.
"They can't talk to me because they can only talk to me, which makes no sense at all," she said with exasperation.
Davis' brother has since died. But she hasn't given up because she's worried Capital One will come after his estate. So, she reached out to someone who will talk to her – me.
As the KSL Investigators began digging, we found that Utah law requires financial institutions to either accept a power of attorney or to request certification of one or an opinion of counsel – within seven days. They can't drag it on for weeks on end.
So, we contacted Capital One's public relations team to ask why they were not recognizing Davis's power of attorney. We did not get an answer, but by phone, they told us they would look into what happened.
"I want to finish what I started for him," Pam Davis had told me.
And just like that, she says they finally started talking to her and, after some back-and-forth, her brother's account was written off.
You should know that by law, there are only a handful of reasons why a power of attorney can be rejected, including if the person has already died, or if it is suspected of being fraudulent.
