Power Of Attorney

[killemall419]

Hello,
I have a customer who came in the other day with a question I had no idea how to answer. Apparently, she has an ex husband who is not able to take care of his properties anymore, not sure what the exact circumstances are, however, she brought with her power of attorney paperwork and wanted to know how to transfer the firearms from her ex husband into her name. The reason being, some of the ex husbands family members were essentially taking advantage and have taken a few firearms that were previously the ex husbands without consent from my customer, who has the power of attorney, which I'm assuming makes her the owner more or less, correct? The real question I had was, if my customer would like to transfer the remaining firearms of the ex husband into her name, how would I go about that? The ex husband can't come in for a normal private party transfer, but the firearms are in his name. Would I do the transfer as a normal dealer sale or how exactly would this work? If anyone has any insight or help, please let me know. Thank you.

[Librarian]

Presuming both live in CA, if the wife has POA she can use the OPLAW form to transfer everything to herself - on line, or the PDF - http://ag.ca.gov/firearms/forms/pdf/oplaw.pdf.

Note that once the decision to transfer is made, the guns would already be hers, to do with as she chooses. There is no need to wait for an acknowledgement; the form is an after-the-fact documentation of an accomplished transfer.

(I keep losing the URL for the online version).
ETA - here it is: https://cfars.doj.ca.gov/crisHome!di...HomeAsGuest.do

Meanwhile she should get a safe and keep them out of grabby hands.

ETA - on second thought, she may need to do the PPT from herself as conservator or whatever, or as agent for the owner via the POA. Seller would be something like 'Jane Smith, Attorney in Fact for John Smith'.

[kemasa]

It was said EX-husband, so the OPLAW would not work.

There is a POA for prohibited people, so I would assume it is no different than that, at least for selling, since it is just a CA issue. The bound book might be an issue since the person who is bringing it in is also the seller.

[DEPUTYBILL]

Not an FFL. But, if this an ex-husband, why is SHE in possession of HIS firearms. My thought would be to find out the circumstances of his inability to handle his own affairs.
If she was given possession of the firearms in some type of legal agreement from a court, fine.
My worry is there may be other relatives, or friends of the ex that may have a claim on this items.

[M1NM]

Not an FFL. But, if this an ex-husband, why is SHE in possession of HIS firearms. My thought would be to find out the circumstances of his inability to handle his own affairs.
If she was given possession of the firearms in some type of legal agreement from a court, fine.
My worry is there may be other relatives, or friends of the ex that may have a claim on this items.

Many exes stay friends. He may hate his family more than her. His family may have abandoned him but she didn't. Sounds like he is still in possession and she is trying to remove them so his family stops stealing from him. Other relatives may not have a claim on his property until he dies and the estate is settled. Sounds like she will be the executor too when that time comes.

[kemasa]

Having a POA does not mean that you have a right to any items, nor that you have a responsibility to protect assets of the person other than what you do. Using a POA to transfer items to yourself could be an issue.

[jjjjeremy]

Hello,
I have a customer who came in the other day with a question I had no idea how to answer. Apparently, she has an ex husband who is not able to take care of his properties anymore, not sure what the exact circumstances are, however, she brought with her power of attorney paperwork and wanted to know how to transfer the firearms from her ex husband into her name. The reason being, some of the ex husbands family members were essentially taking advantage and have taken a few firearms that were previously the ex husbands without consent from my customer, who has the power of attorney, which I'm assuming makes her the owner more or less, correct? The real question I had was, if my customer would like to transfer the remaining firearms of the ex husband into her name, how would I go about that? The ex husband can't come in for a normal private party transfer, but the firearms are in his name. Would I do the transfer as a normal dealer sale or how exactly would this work? If anyone has any insight or help, please let me know. Thank you.

Depending on what is enumerated in the Power of Attorney, she will likely have the right to make any transactions on his behalf, including transfers of any of his property to anyone else.

Imagine a separate situation in which a son has a POA for his sick father and needs to sell property (including guns) to pay for his father's medical bills. Same situation from the legal / POA side of things.

But to cover your own a**, check the date on the POA and compare it to the date of divorce. Make sure the POA is AFTER the divorce. Almost every packet of estate planning documents includes powers of attorney between the spouses. You need to make sure she isn't waving around a copy from their pre-divorce days.