Banks and General Power of Attorney

oldwiring

I am long out of banking, so am not uo to date with modern bank practice, but was a little surprised a this.

A relative's bother granted the relative a general power of attorney to be valid whilst the brother is abroad. The bank refused to accept it as the attorney signed after -(i.e the dates were different)- the donor had dated it. Seems illogical to me, because how on earth can an attorney sign before the power has been created?

a&akay

Don't bother with power of attourney. Register the account online and give the login, password etc to the person you want to operate the account. You must of course trust them absolutely!

mitchb

a&akay wrote: »

Don't bother with power of attourney. Register the account online and give the login, password etc to the person you want to operate the account. You must of course trust them absolutely!

Not a wise move, if caught your access to online banking could be stopped forever.

Also if you did fall out with the person you would be liable for all the transactions that took place as online banking terms and conditions will state you should never give them out and must change them if you suspect someone knows them.

Biggles

oldwiring wrote: »

The bank refused to accept it as the attorney signed after -(i.e the dates were different)- the donor had dated it. Seems illogical to me, because how on earth can an attorney sign before the power has been created?

What a load of tosh. The dates are quite irrelevant and, as you say, the donor must grant the power, then the attorney must accept it. It has to be in that order; though it would normally take place at the same time, there's nothing to say it has to.

Banks have problems with PoAs in that they are rulebound and PoAs don't fit neatly into their rules. I might be inclined to dispute this with the bank but that could take time.

I take it the brother has already gone abroad? If not, download the forms and do it again.

Otherwise, it depends where his form came from. Was it the free one downloaded from the Public Guardianship website? If so, that's easy, it is four separate pages. He just needs to complete Part C again (this time using the same date as in Part B! - and better get the same witness too in case the bank gets picky about that) and put it with the rest of the PoA in place of the original. Bob, as they say, is yer uncle.