Advice on handling a distribution via Power of Attorney

I'll try to be brief:

Doctor owned a small medical practice for many years and has a 401k.  His wife worked for him.  Both have balances in their 401k plan.

Doctor now has a serious medical condition and closed the practice.  The doctor also has an outside relationship with another individual for many years and continues to have that now.  The wife is beside herself and may have had a mental breakdown.  Family members have taken his side on this.  Wife is still married to him.

If the daughter now has a power of attorney for both doctor and wife, can any 401k distributions proceed via the POA signing by the daughter, as employer, trustee, and participant (Wife)?

It depends on what the PsOA and plan documents provide. Who or what do you think you represent or answer to? Any interested (directly or indirectly) fiduciary needs to ask if they need to engage an independent fiduciary. And what Bill Presson said.

EDIT: Replaced “interested” with “independent”

20 hours ago, Bill Presson said:

lawyer up

Better call Saul.

I 100% agree with getting an attorney recommendation.  But, if the Dr. is still well enough to maintain an outside relationship, why can't he take his distribution from the plan now, while he still can?

Here’s a further way to think about the situation Santo Gold describes.

Imagine that beyond the plan’s trustee there is a bank, trust company, securities broker-dealer, or other financial-services business that serve as the trustee’s custodian of the plan’s investments. Imagine that the daughter, supposedly acting as the trustee’s agent, instructs the custodian to redeem investments.

Does the agreement the trustee made with the custodian obligate the custodian to act on the trustee’s agent’s instruction?

Does the agreement even permit the custodian to act on the trustee’s agent’s instruction?

What if the powers to act for the trustee, even if otherwise valid under the State and Federal laws governing the effect of the power-of-attorney document, are contrary to the retirement plan’s or its trust’s governing documents?

Or are contrary to applicable law governing the plan’s trust?

If the daughter lacked authority to instruct the custodian, or an authority was invalid under the plan, its trust, the custodian’s agreement, or an applicable law regarding any of them:

Is the custodian liable for the consequences of having acted without a valid instruction?

Should the custodian lawyer-up?