Lasting Power of Attorney & Bank Account Access

dedge43

A close relative with a very low income and who has had countless financial crises recently asked us to start looking after their financial affairs, so that (hopefully) they would no longer be constantly in trouble at the bank and with other agencies. The relative wants just to be given "pocket money", while we try to ensure that the bills get paid etc. My partner has just been granted an LPA to facilitate this.
We understand that it will allow her to manage this person's bank accounts. But once the LPA is registered with the bank, will her relative still be able to withdraw money? Or would the default be that only the LPA "attorney" could do this? And would we need to apply for special cheque books? (Might be difficult to explain to every organisation we send a cheque to on this person's behalf why the signature doesn't match the printed name.)

Would appreciate any advice from anyone who has been through this, or maybe the title of a suitable, easy-to-understand, book on the subject ?!

Thanks.

dedge43

dzug1

An LPoA does not stop the donor spending money - they remain as entitled to sign cheques as the attorney. You would need to prevent them having access to a cheque book, card, etc.

You do not get a special cheque book. You just sign with your own name followed by 'Attorney for' or similar. Never caused any problems to me.

Depending on the bank you may only be allowed one card between you.

Biggles

Lloyds and, I think, most banks, will issue you with a special cheque book, saying 'J Bloggs. POA For F Bloggs' or similar.

So a possible problem might be explaining why it's a POA cheque, but no business receiving one will care one way or the other.

If you do get a separate book, it would be best to take his own book away (if he agrees, of course).

dedge43

Many thanks, dzug1 and biggles, for that advice. The reckless writing of cheques without any thought to the bigger picture has been one of the main causes of the plights our relative has got into in the past. If my partner and this person can agree that only my partner should have the chequebook and card for the time being (and this shouldn't be a problem) that will be a big step forward. We'll have to speak to the bank concerned to find out what arrangements they can offer re new chequebooks etc.

Dedge43

Savvy_Sue

You may also want to ensure that future cheque books are sent to your partner rather than the relative, otherwise it's all just short-term!

sloughflint

You may be interested in how the Halifax operate their power of attorney accounts ( although things may have changed).They can ( or could) only be operated by the attorney.

It's rather a bizarre concept. Thankfully it didn't matter too much in my case as another account was used as the main account by the donor but if Halifax still operate in this way, it might work well for you.

Pee

You don't need a book, there is plenty of advice on the Office of the Public Guardian website.

You are looking after the donor's best interests. If they have capacity and this means if they can make a decision at some times of the day, you need to be discussing things with them and getting them to make the decision whereever possible. It is what they want, not what you think is right.

You will register the LPA with each financial institution. They may wish to see the original and take a copy. You may also need to show it to other people you deal with. If the bank are aware you are attorney, they will accept the signature and any recepient of the cheques will not worry about anything else.

dedge43

Many thanks to Savvy_Sue, Sloughflint, and Pee for some more good advice.
Savvy_Sue: Good point about where replacement cheque books should be addressed; it would have been easy to overlook that.
Sloughflint: We still have to talk to the donor's current bank to find out what arrangements are available. But thank you for the tip about the Halifax--that coult come in handy.
Pee: Thanks for the cautionary note about the donor's best interests. In my original post I didn't go into full detail of the background for obvious reasons, and I won't now. But if I could tell you even one tenth of it you'd understand why the donor needed to apply for an LPA and asked my partner to be their attorney. We discuss all decisions with the donor, plan to keep complete "books" that they're free to look at whenever they wish, and have emphasised that the donor can withdraw from the LPA at any time. Believe me, the donor's best interests are the only reason why my partner has agreed to be an attorney, which will inevitably involve her in a huge amount of unpaid work. She's not exactly overjoyed about having to undertake this at her stage of life, but it's the only way we can see of keeping the donor's head above water.

Thanks again to all.

monkeyspanner

In our experience each bank interprets power of attorney rules in different ways. Often counter staff are incredibly badly trained in this area of their banking operations and give incorrect and misleading advice as they do not understand the reason for POAs and what power they bestow on the attorney.

I know that for instance Abbey will not allow an ATM or debit card to be active on an account on which an attorney is registered, and any card already issued will be cancelled as soon as registration takes place.

Some banks will also ask for the account holder to confirm the requests of the attorney which rather defeats the objective of the POA.

Eventually we used LLoydsTSB as the best of a bad bunch registered the POA with the bank and operated the accounts (savings and current) via internet banking whilst MIL used her ATM card for day to day cash. Eventually even this card had to be cancelled as money was 'disappearing' and a relative gave her cash when needed and was reimbursed later.

margaretclare

I wonder if you could consider running this the way that DH and I run our joint account. Because of 'history' from his previous marriage, he was very much against the idea of our having a joint account - his ex had, as you describe, written cheques willy-nilly when there was nowt in the kitty e.g. after his nth redundancy. I wanted the joint account just to pay household bills, and we agreed that's how it would be set up. We both fund it but there is no cheque-book or card on it, in other words, the only things that go out of it are direct debits for household bills. Neither of us can access it for cash.

dzug1

monkeyspanner wrote: »

I know that for instance Abbey will not allow an ATM or debit card to be active on an account on which an attorney is registered, and any card already issued will be cancelled as soon as registration takes place.

News to me. They told me only one debit card.

But then the Abbey are never that hot on consistency and admin anyway.

I'll keep quiet about it I think. I'm closing the account as soon as it's served its purpose.