Estranged sister owns mom’s life insurance policy

I can’t believe I have to think about this right now, but no one seems to have a clear answer. I have three sisters and the four of us have been paying in to a life insurance policy that one sister (we’ll call her Barbara) established for our mom several years ago. Mothers Day 2023, Barbara had a falling out with both me and my mom and she was mad enough to cut mom out of her life. Previous to the falling out, they talked nearly every day and Barbara generously (and against all of our advice,) sent Mom money regularly to cover extra expenses.

Mother’s Day last year, Barbara decided that an insult she received from our dementia-riddled mom was enough to end their relationship, but she has kept the life insurance policy in place.

Fast forward to now, Mom is in the hospital and things are bleak. My other two sisters are in contact with Barbara and they’ve updated her on Mom’s health every step of the way and though it looks like we’re at the end, Barbara refuses to visit. My sisters encouraged Barbara to turn the life insurance policy over to one of us, and she said she couldn’t because she’s the policy owner. I have several questions:

Is it true that she can’t transfer the policy? This makes no sense to me when I think about all the people who have life insurance policies for loved ones – what if they die, divorce, or become estranged like in this case? I’m obviously very naive about this topic, I don’t deny it.

As my mom’s current power of attorney, do I have the right to request the policy information from the official database?

If Barbara decides to squirrel away the money, is there recourse we can take?

Is there a clause in life insurance paperwork that explicitly states what the money is allowed to be used for?

I’m not trying to be money-grubbing here, it’s just that the three sisters who are still caring for our mom don’t have the money between us to cover the end of life expenses, and we thought we had it covered. Now that Barbara is acting utterly deranged, I have doubts about her financial transparency.

submitted by /u/Careless-Being-4427
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