Does anybody have advice on Power of Attorney?
I am considering setting one up as a precautionary measure for a relative. I believe the are now called 'Lasting Power of Attorney' and can be quite expensive to set up.
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Apparently there are 2 types - 1) Financial 2) Welfare.
1) Financial is important if the relative has resources - owns home, substantial cash/shares etc
It apparently can cost a minimum of around £500 + to raise and register the PoA.
Having this investment apparently does not work with 100% of Banks and the like.........see Money Box on BBC.co.uk for background and experiences
2) Welfare - no experience
I had a MiL with very little by way of resources but dealing with affairs before and after her death was patchy - Bank was excellent locally after previously falling foul of their Estates Dept.
Insurances -LV was great, Pearl messed around for ages, RSA was the least cooperative.
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Arranged an LPA three years ago so that my two very trustworthy sons have control, should I ever lose it. Am nearly 70 (and feeling fine) but you never know. Cost was around £1,000 and involved an interview to satisfy brief I knew what I was doing. Took about 5 weeks to complete. Good peace of mind.
EH
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Book an appointment with your local CAB ! Free !
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>> Book an appointment with your local CAB ! Free !
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Is that for all types of PoA?
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/8305337/Power-of-attorney-chaos-hits-elderly.html
"... Crucially, every LPA must now be registered with the Public Guardian before it can be used. This costs £120 for each part, presenting a husband and wife with a £480 bill they might not previously have faced.
Given the need for a certificate provider, most will now consult a lawyer to prepare the forms, at a typical additional cost of between £400 and £700, pushing the total bill to about £1,000.
Mr Kidd said: "The system is horrendously onerous for the consumer, and for some the cost is prohibitive." ... "
www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/personalfinance/consumertips/8568482/Banks-weakest-link-in-power-of-attorney-requests.html
Last edited by: John H on Thu 14 Jun 12 at 12:14
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>>I am considering setting one up as a precautionary measure for a relative.
Absolutely everybody should have one. If you are incapacitated in an accident then without one you end up under the powers of the court, not your family.
Get it now. Everybody.
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It sounds fine in theory, and obviously sensible in the extreme case of total and irreversible incapacity.
But the more likely situation, which I have had experience of, is of someone who is declining in mental powers, but not in a straightforward progression.
Someone has to be in full possession of faculties to make the declaration, but equally can undo it if temporarily regaining health.
My mother would quite rationally agree that it would be best if I administered her affairs for her, but on another day would forget she had done so and undo all the work I had done.
There is as far as I know no facility for forcibly restraining someone from going into her bank and drawing out £1000, and no amount of waving a POA at a bank will persuade them to create a public scene when a confused customer tries to access her own account.
A POA simply does not address the problems faced by people with dementia and their carers.
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Thu 14 Jun 12 at 15:50
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>> A POA simply does not address the problems faced by people with dementia and their
>> carers.
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agreed but without one you, as a carer, are even more hamstrung in that most organisations, banks etc will not even discuss your parent/grandparent 's affairs at all.
Each situation is in some way unique and this is the kind of problem more and more people will have to handle at some point in the future.
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Be warned there's particular problems around Joint Accounts if one of holders dies and there is a POA involved. Came across this last week, down mainly to bankers who don't know the rules. A Bank with a Scots accent !
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My parents have POA over my grandmothers finances and it works very well.
They pay her care bills with her money and their signatures, they manage her money for her so it gets the best interest rates - something she never did in later life - and it means that she has no worries about paying for things, she has accepted it as she knows she now has early stage dementia and cant remember doing things, but she trusts my parents to do the right thing so no stress for her.
They have actually grown her estate by 10% since they took over the running of it as she was managing it very poorly beforehand.
The only difficulty has been with banks, namley that one owned by the Spanish lot, who dont seem to have anyone trained in handling POA cases so the account was eventually closed through the solicitor and her other bank has been excellent in helping my father maximise her investments, with no ID issues whatsoever.
Its certainly a wise precaution but choose wisely who you give the power to!
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Power of Attorney - R.P.
