Power of Attourney

wesleyad

Hi guys,
Quick question;

I was told today that if the wife went into a coma, all our assets would be frozen as we have not appointed Lasting Powers of Attorney.

Firstly is this true? A quick google seems to indicate it is, but my main question is does it really happen in everyday life? If joe bloggs with one house, average income, 3 kids etc has a stroke, do they really stop the wife getting at any money?

RAS

Who told you this?

BitterAndTwisted

That's tosh! If you had assets in joint names you would have access to all of them. Power of Attorney is about being able to make use of someone else's money, for an on their behalf, solely for their benefit.

RAS

More information here:

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney...er-of-attorney

You can access joint accounts and assets without an LPA anyway.

The only accounts that would not be accessible immediately would be those in her sole name.

You would however be able to go to the Public Guardians and get yourself appointed to deal with ehr affairs.

The only instance I know of when this situation became problematic did not involve a couple.

A man had sole custody of his child, with the ex only permitted supervised access. He employed a nanny to care for the child.

He was in a serious acccident, massive brain injury and because he had no joint accounts they had to wait until other family members could be appointed to look after his affairs.

Mojisola

BitterAndTwisted wrote: »

That's tosh! If you had assets in joint names you would have access to all of them. Power of Attorney is about being able to make use of someone else's money, for an on their behalf, solely for their benefit.

I don't know if the banks have changed their policies now but we made POA for exactly this reason.

I heard a radio programme about a young mother whose husband was in a coma after a car accident. Their accounts were all joint. She told the bank about his accident and the bank immediately froze all their accounts "to protect his interests". They wouldn't even allow her to use 50% of the money in the accounts.

wesleyad

RAS wrote: »

Who told you this?

This came from the missus being advised by work lawyers. I must add I didn't mean to imply she at risk of going into a coma, just something they mentioned.

This site also seems to agree:

"http://www.estatelegacyservices.co.uk/blog/enduring-power-of-attorney/losing-joint-funds-due-mental-incapacity/"

and has a link to the BBA, although not working. The site doesnt look massively genuine however, so I'm would use that as sole sourse.

As Mojisola says this is pretty much the scenario that the work lawyers brought up and I was wondering if it was bull or not.

Savvy_Sue

I don't know that it happens often: the case Mojisola heard about is the only one I've heard about, but I've also heard rumours of problems for older couples.

The 'problem' in this case was that the wife went to the bank and said something like "Fred's in a coma, as you know he's self-employed, won't be able to pay the mortgage this month, please understand that we'll sort it all out as soon as we can".

If she'd not told them, they'd have been none the wiser.

Mojisola

Savvy_Sue wrote: »

I don't know that it happens often: the case Mojisola heard about is the only one I've heard about, but I've also heard rumours of problems for older couples.

I've never heard of another case either but there was a bank spokesperson on the programme who was insisting the bank had a duty of care to the husband - I wonder if they've changed their stance?

I was really glad that the programme encouraged people to sort out POA. I probably wouldn't have got round to it otherwise and it's made things so much easier with managing my Dad's affairs.

I would encourage people to do it whether the joint bank account is still an issue or not.

Savvy_Sue

We made the 'old' kind just before they stopped being possible. We made each other and DS1 joint attorneys on each, and I think that will do us for now - he was the only son old enough to be appointed at the time, and we couldn't wait for DS2 to 'come of age'!

One of the dithers about our wills is knowing who to appoint as executors: each other, plus all 3 sons? each other plus DS1 plus one or other of his brothers? Get their uncle involved? Decisions, decisions ...