powers of attorney

howied

Hi can any one help. My mum has recently been taken into care due to her suffering from Dementia. Will my Father her Husband and next of kin be able to access her ISA account as its held in only her name, or will he have to apply to the Court of protection in order to be made her deputy due to her lacking Mental Capacity.

Gingernutty

Sorry, OP. You need to apply to the Court of Protection.

Brighton_belle

Gingernutty wrote: »

Sorry, OP. You need to apply to the Court of Protection.

Please also set up power of attorney forms for your father so this doesn't happen if his health drastically fails.

margaretclare

Just to expand on this, what should have happened was that Power of Attorney was set up at a time when Mum had capacity and could give power to her husband, or someone (the OP maybe?)

Dementia does not AFAIK come on overnight and there would have been time to sort out all these problems beforehand. Individual Savings Accounts are just that - individual. Mum could have done something about it before she lost mental capacity.

Errata

margaretclare wrote: »

Just to expand on this, what should have happened was that Power of Attorney was set up at a time when Mum had capacity and could give power to her husband, or someone (the OP maybe?)

Dementia does not AFAIK come on overnight and there would have been time to sort out all these problems beforehand. Individual Savings Accounts are just that - individual. Mum could have done something about it before she lost mental capacity.

None of that is of any help whatsoever to the OP right now.
Court of protection in order to be made her deputy is the only way forward.

margaretclare

But it may be of help to others who may be in a similar position.

JuneBow

Some of these replies are a little misleading.
Whilst it is true that a person has to have capacity to appoint a power of attorney, just because someone has dementia does not mean that they do not have capacity to make the appointment.
The tests of capacity for PoAs are, broadly speaking, the same as those tests which are necessary to make a valid will.
A person can have capacity to make both a PoA and make a valid will but not have capacity to manage their own affairs.
Lucid moments are sufficient to make wills and PoAs. An experienced solicitor will be able to tell you whether your mum has capacity.
As a rough guide. Does she know what she is doing. Does she know the significance of the document? Can she differentiate between one person and another. ie Does she know it is better to give person A the appointment rather than person B.
As someone has said, dementia does not come on overnight, so whilst she may not be able to look after herself, it does not mean she cannot give your father power of attorney.
It is impossible for anyone here to know how your mums condition affects her capacity. Equally, it is unlikely that you are able to tell whether she has capacity. An experienced solicitor will ask the right questions. They may even get a doctor to give a report. But they will be able to tell whether this is necessary.
If someone experienced thinks that she does not have capacity, then, yes, the Court of Protection is the only way to do it.
The sooner you act, the better as she is unlikely to regain capacity.
Sorry for your troubles BTW. It must be terrible for you.

howied

Thanks for the response. After lengthy talks to both Santander the holder of my Mums account and the offices of the court of protection, it does appear to be the only way forward. Its not a quick process or a cheap one but weighed up against my Parents life savings thats negligible. Ive also applied for the paper work in order for my Father to make me his Power Of Attorney and I urge others out there with elderly parents to do the same as this allows you to deal with their affairs if they should fall ill or become unable to have the mental capacity to make those decisions.

brook2jack

I would utterly endorse the above. It was apparent three years ago my mother in laws mental powers were diminishing and so it cost about £800 I think to set up a power of attorney for both my in laws , just in case.

Two weeks ago my father in law suddenly died , everything was left to my mother in law who has advanced dementia. In that time we have had to set up emergency care and start to find a care home (as a self funder she has to provide financial proof that three years of care home fees could be paid out of her assets circa £100,000).

The power of attorney has meant we have instant access to bank accounts,pensions etc and can start to pay for things she will need and set into motion realising her assets. We are slightly out of pocket because it took a little time to trace and visit banks etc as she has no idea. Without the power of attorney we couldn't pay her bills let alone sort out her care home . It's been a very stressful and demanding time, it would have been even more of a nightmare without power of attorney ( it was the first thing many of the care homes asked about).

If a loved one is showing signs of mental decline sort out attorney now , it's too late once they have deteriorated as they have to have capacity to understand what they are doing . If you wait a terrible situation can t urn into a catastrophic one.

Errata

It's always worth giving consideration to having more than one attorney.

A power of attorney may name two people where one is primary attorney-in-fact with sole and complete power to act for the principal in all transactions. The second person may only be a successor attorney-in-fact in the event the primary is unable or unwilling to act.

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Mojisola

Errata wrote: »

It's always worth giving consideration to having more than one attorney.

I'd second this. None of us know what the future will bring - while we hope to be fit and capable when our parents need care, there's no way to be sure.

We've already made POAs ourselves - I hope it will be 20+ years before they are needed (if at all) but there's no point waiting until the need is there.