What age should we make a poa

74jax

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

Sorry to sound stupid but what exactly is one?

You make them when you have mental capacity to be prepared for when you don't.

There's differing types, mainly financial or health related.

I think it may be due to my mum having a stroke I think it's important, whereas OH and his dad were able to do it over time when his dad became ill.

74jax

Errata wrote: »

Ask him to show you the guarantee he's been given that he will never be smashed into on the motorway and live, but with serious irreversible brain damage leaving him incapable of making decisions.

I've used loads of examples, including personal ones we can relate too. I think some people don't like making wills etc and maybe this is the same?

Thank you for your reply tho, it's a really good (??) thing to put to him.

I didn't think it was normally done when 'older' but that could be due to my parents and knowing about them.

Mojisola

Barneysmom wrote: »

Never I should hope. There's a simple solution, get a joint account so you both have access to money.

We assumed that having joint accounts would protect us from any problems and then I heard a radio programme, years ago, about a young stay-at-home mother whose husband was in a car accident which left him in a coma. She went to the bank to ask for a bit of leeway because his normal earnings wouldn't be going into their account and the bank promptly froze their account "in order to protect his interests". They wouldn't even release 50% of the capital.

The family were having to survive on hand-outs from family and friends.

We set up POAs for all the family after that, including the young adult children - it was the old system so it was a few years ago now. The paperwork is locked away and won't be needed unless one of us has problems but, if we do, life will be much easier.

Errata

POA is really 'just in case' stuff. Like house insurance - nobody expects their house to burn to the ground, but they always insure it in case it does.

valk_scot

I don't have a POA for my OH, or the other way round. We're co-signators for just about everything that matters though, plus as we're legally married to each other we will have some degree of input on health matters if it comes to say switching off life support, or Do Not Resuscitate, or disposing of each other's organs. POA is more important when it comes to people that you're not married to, like elderly relatives.

However it's not a bad idea in general to have one if your spouse has seperate assets that may need looking after if they can't. I don't think most folk take one out on marriage automatically, however. Making a will is more important. If your OH doesn't want to do it well, I wouldn't insist, but you could allways still give him POA for you if it makes you happier?

I'm in Scotland btw, don't know if English laws on this are any different.

room512

My mum arranged for my brother and I to have POA - financially and medically just after my dad died. She wanted to know that it was in place should it ever be needed. I think the whole thing cost over £500 though so it wasn't cheap.

74jax

valk_scot wrote: »

I don't have a POA for my OH, or the other way round. We're co-signators for just about everything that matters though, plus as we're legally married to each other we will have some degree of input on health matters if it comes to say switching off life support, or Do Not Resuscitate, or disposing of each other's organs. POA is more important when it comes to people that you're not married to, like elderly relatives.

However it's not a bad idea in general to have one if your spouse has seperate assets that may need looking after if they can't. I don't think most folk take one out on marriage automatically, however. Making a will is more important. If your OH doesn't want to do it well, I wouldn't insist, but you could allways still give him POA for you if it makes you happier?

I'm in Scotland btw, don't know if English laws on this are any different.

It makes me much happier to have mine in place - well it will be in a few months...

It's the health side, not financial side that I would like sorted. So even if we were joint signatories it wouldn't help me if I had a stroke and was being a pain in the......

I want him to be able to take control when clearly I'm living in my own world so to speak.

I feel better having decided to just do mine though, I felt a little 'uneasy' not having one before.

74jax

room512 wrote: »

My mum arranged for my brother and I to have POA - financially and medically just after my dad died. She wanted to know that it was in place should it ever be needed. I think the whole thing cost over £500 though so it wasn't cheap.

Can I ask what age your mum was? Was it around ours or older?

mummyroysof3

Thanks. I can't understand why you would need one for a Spouse though still

Mojisola

mummyroysof3 wrote: »

Thanks. I can't understand why you would need one for a Spouse though still

One simple example - If your husband's name is on any of the utility bills and he is seriously ill in hospital, the company won't deal with you.