Power of Attorney Question

Caramac

My dad has an existing power of attorney set up, I've not looked at the details yet but I would assume it is an enduring power of attorney as it was set up several years ago.

I was looking at registering this but it appears to be it can only come into effect if he is mentally incapable to look after his affairs. In theory he is capable of looking after his financial affairs but he is rather deaf, and has difficulty using a pin number. He only goes out if accompanied by someone. At the moment I am doing all his shopping and getting cash for him and he is writing me a cheque to cover it. After listening to him trying to talk to his bank yesterday I feel that I need to take control.

He is quite happy for this to happen and so is my mum. Previously she took control of all the finances but she is seriously ill at the moment and is unlikely to recover. I also feel my dad is susceptible to any unscrupulous salesman.

Does anyone know if power of attorney is the only option. I know with the
lasting power of attorney the mental incapacity is not so much of an issue. He is not so much mentally incapable as incapable with dealing with the banking industry etc as it is today.

I apologise if this has been covered already but I only mentioned it to him yesterday and have not really have time to investigate it fully as the first website I looked at mentioned the mental incapacity.

monkeyspanner

I think if your Dad put in place an EPA several years ago it can be used without registration as your Dad is still mentally capable. An EPA only has to be registered if the donor is mentally incapable. If you would like to double check this here is a link http://www.publicguardian.gov.uk/arrangements/epa.htm

There could however be problems with some banks as once a bank account has an EPA linked to it the bank may restrict some account facilities and some banks do not like both account holder and EPA recipient to have access simultaneously to the account.

Santander (Abbey) are particularly bad in our experience, LloydsTSB were better but still not completely ameanable. We found it easier to restrict contact with the banks and use internet banking wherever possible.

Hope this helps.

Biggles

As Monkeyspanner says, the document you have is all you need. It came into effect the moment he signed it and does not need to be registered yet. Some banks are less competent than others in this area and you need to know your ground and may have to be persistent. They will want to see the original but never leave it with anyone. The bank will copy it for their purposes and give it you back but, if you ask them nicely, they will 'certify' other copies for you to use with other institutions, who will accept them in the same way as originals.

What the PoA won't do, however, is prevent him from being susceptible to an unscrupulous salesman. I did finally get my mother 'trained' to ask me before writing any cheques or signing anything, not before she'd been caught by one distraction burglary but it did save her from the next one.

Savvy_Sue

Tackling this from the other end, it might be worth asking for Social Services Sensory Impairment Team to do an assessment of things that would make your dad's life easier. A text phone might help with phone calls, for example! Also for my mum I will make the call, pass the phone to her to confirm who she is and that it's OK to speak to me. Some banks don't like you doing even this, however ... I've been known to have one handset on speaker phone, and write down what they're saying so she can read it and answer!

pollypenny

My father just made me a joint signatory on his account, so that i could pay his bills and generally manage his affairs.