Advice on power of attorney

Snowbird

One of my mums elderly neighbours, many years ago, gave me joint power of attorney with her solicitor.
She has now had a stroke.
She has two adult children. When she signed power of attorney to me, they were only students and I was older than them so she gave it to me.
The solicitor says we now have to register the power of attorney as she is incapable.
The problem is that I don't really want to act. I think the children may now resent my involvement. The neighbour, I think, just had not got around to removing me.
What I am concerned about is that if I do not act, the solicitor will do everything and I will be racking up massive bills on her behalf. The children all take turns to stay with her even though she pays for carers to come in and out, they just are worried about their mum. But I feel a bit like an intruder when I have to go and pay the carers, give them money for her shopping, decide on her investments etc.
(I suppose I wouldn't object too much about the investments as I think the children would ask me anyway as they have no particular expertise, and they know I manage my own investments)
No one has said anything, but I feel like I am intruding on the family, but on the other hand if I give the work to the solicitor, I am concerned that they will think that I am frittering away their inheritance. (they are sole beneficiaries of their mums estate)
Can I justifiably hand over everything to them, and on what grounds to I have to give? Or can I transfer the power of attorney to one of the children, which is what I think they would like - I think even the neighbour would have liked it if she had thought about it in recent years. She is 71 a the moment, so I do not know how long she will last in her current condition.

Robert_Sterling_3

This may seem an odd thing to say buy have you ask the solicitor what you should do in the circumstances.

Errata

If you phone the Office of the Public Guardian it will be able to go through with you in real time the different scenarios and their implications. Number on the website and calls are local charges.

Biggles

You can't pass over the PoA to the children. Once someone has lost 'mental capacity', no new PoA can be made or changed. And it would be a dreadful shame, if they were willing, for the work to be done at massive cost by the solicitor.

If you have been carying out the duties, I assume you and the solicitor are attorneys 'jointly and severally' (ie that either of you can act on your own) and that he is happy for you to make decisions (as you have been doing)?

It that is the case, I would suggest you ask the children if they wish to carry out the duties on your behalf. In theory, you would still be taking decisions. And you would still have to sign cheques, documents etc as 'Attorney to .....'.

This could only be an informal arrangement, and you would still be responsible, but in view of the current circumstances it might make more sense for them to become more involved in their mother's care and affairs.

Snowbird

Robert_Sterling wrote: »

This may seem an odd thing to say buy have you ask the solicitor what you should do in the circumstances.

I have already spoken to the solicitor about him acting and he has told me that he would have to charge me (or the old lady) for this, so he recommended doing it. When I had that conversation with him I had not thought about stepping down, so did not speak to him about that.
He is very open about the fact that he would charge us, and I don't want the others to think I am wasting their inheritance.
I am going to see him later next week about a few other things.
She was talking about changing her will and including a trust for the grandchildren a while ago. She is fine sometimes, but at others she is terribly confused.
To be frank Biggles, the children do most of the running around anyway. I largely only sign cheques for them, shopping, getting a new downstairs bathroom, carers wages, benefits claims etc. Its just that I feel like I am intruding. They really know best for their own mum, so I just let them get on with it.
As I said, the only thing I get involved in that they don't is with the stockbroker, and I did this for many years for her anyway, and to some extent for the children, so not much has changed there.
Wish I had not agreed to do it in the first place now.

monkeyspanner

It is a difficult situation for you Snowbird. I think I would try to have a frank conversation with the children lay out your concerns and see what their reaction is. It would not be in the interests of the children for you to hand over to the solicitor who would as you say charge for his services. From past experience these charges could be substantial and there is no guarantee that decisions would be made in a timely manner by the solicitor. It can also be better for the children that an outsider is the final decision maker. My wife had her mum's POA and it caused problems in the family due to her having to make unpopular decisions. If you wanted to be largely hands off you could set up a bank account that the children can access for day to day expenses but if the POA is registered there are accounting considerations which the public guardians office can explain.

Hope it works out for you.

Biggles

Snowbird, I'd be inclined to give the OPG http://www.publicguardian.gov.uk/ a ring and explain the position to them.

They may be able to appoint the children as either substitute Attorneys or as Deputies.

Savvy_Sue

And, if she is sometimes 'in her right mind' and able to understand things, it would be possible at one of those times for her to sign a new PoA. That would of course have to be one of the new and more comprehensive ones, and these do cost more to register, but would solve the problem.

Savvy_Sue

Just to say a bit more about signing a new PoA, phoning the Public Guardian to discuss this would definitely be the way go to. I THINK that you would need to start by establishing with the care home when the lady is most likely to be 'in her right mind', and if such a time can be reasonably reliably predicted, I THINK you might be advised to have both a doctor and a solicitor on hand. The doctor would confirm that she was sufficiently 'with it' to understand what was going on, and the solicitor would take the instructions.

Normally you might be able to do this without a solicitor, but under these circumstances it might be adviseable. I'm not saying that solicitors yet have a full understanding of the new PoA system, so do check that yours at least thinks he does!

Pee

Do not allow the children to make decisions which you will end up being responsible for!!

You either need her to make an LPA appointing the children, or the children need to apply for a deputyship. (Depending on whether she is incapable.)
I suggest a meeting with the children and the solicitor.

The solicitor will be paid for some work relating to this, and as a result of that provided the children are capable, probably means that the solicitor will be willing to step back and renounce their appointment, too.

If you are going to carry on acting and she is incapable, then you must register it.