Can I Pursue Legal Action For Financial Exploitation Of My Father Now That I’m The Personal Representative Of His Estate?

Location: Utah

My father passed away in January 2025 in Utah with no will. My brother and I were just officially appointed as the personal representatives of his estate in a formal probate order (authorized to act without bond).

I’m trying to understand whether we can legally pursue people who financially exploited him before he died.

Back in fall 2023, my dad was living with two roommates. He was in poor health and had limited awareness of what was happening. These people were stealing large amounts of money from his credit union accounts; withdrawing cash, transferring money through Zelle, and possibly accessing his accounts without permission. We believe they were intimidating or physically assaulting him as well.

My brother discovered the theft when he took my father to the credit union. My dad said he did not authorize the withdrawals or Zelle transfers. Police were contacted but didn’t do much. My dad didn’t want to press charges, likely because he was scared of them. He was in and out of the hospital during this time. We evicted the roommates for not paying rent, but my dad never got any of the stolen money back.

Now that we are personal representatives, we will be reviewing all of his financial records. We expect to find even more unauthorized transfers.

My questions: 1. As personal representatives, can we sue the people who stole from my father for civil theft, fraud, or conversion? 2. Does the statute of limitations bar us from doing anything since this happened about 2 years ago? 3. Does Utah’s “discovery rule” apply since we’re only now uncovering the full extent of the theft? 4. Can we recover treble damages under Utah’s civil theft statute? 5. Is this something our probate lawyer can help with, or do we need an estate litigation / elder abuse attorney?

Any guidance on whether this is worth pursuing and how to start would be really appreciated. We want accountability for what they did to our dad when he was vulnerable.