New power of attorney guide

skye33

Question about Power of Attorney. Myself and my sister have recently set up POS for my mum who has memory problems although still able to manage her own finances ( just about )

My mum has 2 accounts and my sister had gone in personally to the bank with the POA paperwork so she can have access to mums accounts. I just wondered how much access this gives us as I'm very interested to know an amount that my mum transferred to my sister 6 years ago as my sister says she didn't give her a large sum of money ( says it was just a few thousand ) my mum says she gave her a large amount to pay for an extension she had. I'd really like to get to the bottom of it as have a feeling I'm being lied to by my sister. Would I be able to access this information from my mums banks ? Thanks for any advice

Browntoa

you can request statements for 6 years ago , from memory theres a fee


http://www.which.co.uk/news/2012/02/high-charge-to-access-old-bank-statements-finds-which-279375/


shows how long back banks will supply statements

Keep_pedalling

skye33 wrote: »

Question about Power of Attorney. Myself and my sister have recently set up POS for my mum who has memory problems although still able to manage her own finances ( just about )

My mum has 2 accounts and my sister had gone in personally to the bank with the POA paperwork so she can have access to mums accounts. I just wondered how much access this gives us as I'm very interested to know an amount that my mum transferred to my sister 6 years ago as my sister says she didn't give her a large sum of money ( says it was just a few thousand ) my mum says she gave her a large amount to pay for an extension she had. I'd really like to get to the bottom of it as have a feeling I'm being lied to by my sister. Would I be able to access this information from my mums banks ? Thanks for any advice

You will have exactly the same access as you mum.

You really should let the gift thing go, whatever happened 6 years ago has happened, and unless you mum has made allowances for this in her will, there is little you can do now without causing your mother a lot of grief.

As there are trust issues between you and your sibling you should sort out PoA status with your mum's banks asap so at least from now on everything is transparent between you as far as your mums ongoing financial affairs.

Malthusian

skye33 wrote: »

Would I be able to access this information from my mums banks ? Thanks for any advice

Yes, you can request statements just as if you were your mother herself. Banks are not obliged to keep records forever but realistically they should not have a problem providing a statement from six years ago. As Browntoa says they may charge a fee. If all else fails you can make a Subject Access Request for which they can charge a fee of up to £10.

It may be that no-one is lying and there are just different definitions of "a large amount" being used. What do you plan on doing if you find that your sister is being economical with the truth about how much she was given? If you want your mother to even things up, she will need to give you the money, or amend her Will (if she hasn't already allowed for the gift) while she still has capacity. Attorneys cannot make gifts or change Wills.

skye33

Thanks for the replies. That's good that I can get statements from 6 years ago as I really want to get to the bottom of it. Its not a case of wanting my mum to give me the same. She always said she would match the amount she gave my sister but I accept that didn't happen and that's just the way it is. I just want to know for sure as it's affecting the way I feel about my sister. When I asked her a few years ago ( I was seperating from my partner trying to get enough money for a deposit for place for me and my daughter as he kept the house so was in a bad financial way ) how much Mum had given her for the deposit and was it £15k as that's what I remembered her saying and my mum also said that was the amount( and that was when her memory wasn't as bad )she said to my face she couldn't remember the amount and then few weeks later said it was only £8k. I'm not going to act on the information I find out with my mum but hopefully she was right and it was only £8k and it ll make me fee a lot better in relating to my sister as I keep thinking how could she have lied to me straight out when I so needed help from mum at that time. Then if it's not £15k and she didn't lie to me about it then I can put it aside. I won't even mention it to either of them I just want to know for myself that's it.

skye33

And yes Keep pedalling I will sort out the POA status with the banks so everythingis now transparent.

skye33

Just realised after talking to the bank I won't be able to look at my mums historical statements as it would need my sisters consent as she is joint POA with me.

Browntoa

is it possible to set up online banking for the account ?

Malthusian

skye33 wrote: »

Just realised after talking to the bank I won't be able to look at my mums historical statements as it would need my sisters consent as she is joint POA with me.

Not joint and several? Oh dear. Bad luck. Powers of attorney should always be joint and several and not joint only, though it is probably not much use saying that now.

Can you invent a reason for asking your sister to countersign a request for all her statements dating back as far as they've got - or an even more generic Subject Access Request - or would it be totally obvious that you're digging into her gift six years ago? Though at this point I should point out that it wasn't your sister's decision for a gift of [however much] to be made to her, and not the same to you, it was your mother's. So I'm not sure what difference it makes to the way you feel about your sister.

Very few people would refuse a large gift from their parent and insist that an equal gift was made to their siblings. When my parents helped me with my deposit I didn't insist that they give an equal amount to my sibling - they didn't have the cash and I wouldn't have been able to afford my dream home. They intend to even it up at a later date, and I'm fairly confident that they will, but I don't actually know that, nor is it really any of my business.

Keep_pedalling

Malthusian wrote: »

Not joint and several? Oh dear. Bad luck. Powers of attorney should always be joint and several and not joint only, though it is probably not much use saying that now.

Can you invent a reason for asking your sister to countersign a request for all her statements dating back as far as they've got - or an even more generic Subject Access Request - or would it be totally obvious that you're digging into her gift six years ago? Though at this point I should point out that it wasn't your sister's decision for a gift of [however much] to be made to her, and not the same to you, it was your mother's. So I'm not sure what difference it makes to the way you feel about your sister.

Very few people would refuse a large gift from their parent and insist that an equal gift was made to their siblings. When my parents helped me with my deposit I didn't insist that they give an equal amount to my sibling - they didn't have the cash and I wouldn't have been able to afford my dream home. They intend to even it up at a later date, and I'm fairly confident that they will, but I don't actually know that, nor is it really any of my business.

If that is the case how did the sister sort out access to the accounts on her own?