New power of attorney guide

Errata

The Power is not inheritable and ceased on the death of your brother. A new Attorney must be appointed if one is needed.

Lordjc

Cleopatra21 wrote: »

My brother who held my mother's power of attorney has died suddenly. I have no idea what happens now. Will it pass to his wife? It is not her mother so I think it would be unfair on her to expect her to carry this? Anyone else been through this?

Assuming your brother held a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), and it was registered you need to notify the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). It will also depend on the terms of the Power of Attorney if his wife was named as an replacement attorney, again OPG will hold a copy of the LPA and be able to advise if you call them.

valmiki

Like a lot of the others on this thread, I've managed to sort out my parents' POAs by myself. Couple of pointers to help: Use the online forms (rather than printing them off and filling them in) because the online version will automatically skip the boxes (and pages, there's lots of them!) you don't need to fill in. Once done you can print them off yourself or get them to post them to you which is what I did (your info is then neatly filled in on their forms which makes it look a little more 'professional').

Also, leave plenty of time to register the forms (if you're planning ahead). It took the Office a few weeks just to get back to me to say they had received the request to register the forms! I'm now in my 4 week waiting period which I will expect to take longer than that ;-)

Finally (not sure if anyone has mentioned already) but the cost of doing one is due to drop imminently from £130 to £110 if I have read right, so perhaps if you're not in a rush to wait.

valmiki

Just checked...price dropped already. Fill yer boots before they change their minds!

Rosie1980

My brother is going overseas for a year and during this time wishes me to take control of his financial affairs here. From what I've read it would appear an ordinary power of attorney is suitable for such an arrangement, but I can't find a template or any info about what needs to be written. I do have a template for a "General power of attorney for England and Wales" from one of those law packs you can buy from WHSmith, is this the same? Any help gratefully received, thank you.

sky_lark

3 years ago I sorted an LPA so that my daughter would have total control over my financial affairs should I become mentally incapacitated. However she has since married and therefore changed her surname.
Is this going to cause problems for her if she ever needs to activate the LPA or is it simply a case of her providing her marriage certificate when dealing with my bank and building society?
Should I now be doing something to verify her marital status, and if so........what?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Mojisola

sky_lark wrote: »

3 years ago I sorted an LPA so that my daughter would have total control over my financial affairs should I become mentally incapacitated. However she has since married and therefore changed her surname.
Is this going to cause problems for her if she ever needs to activate the LPA or is it simply a case of her providing her marriage certificate when dealing with my bank and building society?
Should I now be doing something to verify her marital status, and if so........what?

If you change your name on marriage, you don't actually give up your birth name so it's fine to leave things as they are.

u4n90

Rosie1980 wrote: »

My brother is going overseas for a year and during this time wishes me to take control of his financial affairs here. From what I've read it would appear an ordinary power of attorney is suitable for such an arrangement, but I can't find a template or any info about what needs to be written. I do have a template for a "General power of attorney for England and Wales" from one of those law packs you can buy from WHSmith, is this the same? Any help gratefully received, thank you.

Hi Rosie,

You can use a Lasting Power of Attorney Property and Financial Affairs. This can be used upon registration, and you need not have lost capacity in order for your attorney's to act on your behalf.

The online form can be found at https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-of-attorney

u4n90

sky_lark wrote: »

3 years ago I sorted an LPA so that my daughter would have total control over my financial affairs should I become mentally incapacitated. However she has since married and therefore changed her surname.
Is this going to cause problems for her if she ever needs to activate the LPA or is it simply a case of her providing her marriage certificate when dealing with my bank and building society?
Should I now be doing something to verify her marital status, and if so........what?
Thanks in advance for any advice.

Hi Skylark,

An LPA can be used with most third parties even after a name change. Just take along the marriage certificate and other proof of ID.

Mojisola

u4n90 wrote: »

An LPA can be used with most third parties even after a name change. Just take along the marriage certificate and other proof of ID.

It could get silly (and expensive) if this wasn't the case - over the lifetime of an LPA, an attorney could get married, change her name, get divorced and revert to her maiden name, get married again and change her name again.