Does my father in law need to set up Power of Attorney?

molan

My FiL has recently visited a solicitor to set up his will. He's 80 and in decent health but obviously time to do a will. He has no property or independent pension funds and a sum of around £80K in the bank.

My MiL is the sole beneficiary and there's nothing complicated here. Cost was £280.

The solicitor has strongly recommended that he set up a lasting power of attorney and that he must put two people down. One of these would be my MiL but he has no idea who else to have. He has 6 children but never speaks to any of them and his close friends are all in their 80's too.

Note - there's a few divorces & re-marriages involved here. My link is that I'm married to a daughter of the MiL.

Currently he's likely to choose one of his sons who he hasn't seen for 3-4 years simply because he's the oldest.

The charge for setting this up is £940. My FiL doesn't have a huge sum to keep him afloat and this is a lot of money for them.

This appears to be a simple form and the charge feels really high?

My MiL is questioning why he even needs one as she would obviously look after him should he lose mental capacity.

My concern here is that they've always run separate bank accounts - nothing untoward, just an 'old fashioned' view that the husband looks after the money & pays his wife 'housekeeping' every week.

So, my questions are:

Does he really need to set up an LPA in these circumstances?

If so, is £940 reasonable or should it be much cheaper?

Does he have to have two nominees given that he doesn't have a 2nd person he's actually close to and can trust?

Linton

He does need an LPA as no-one else can manage his financial affairs (eg accessing his personal bank account) without one, even MIL. He does need a second attorney as MIL may die first or become unable to carry out the duties.

It should be possible to fill in the LPA forms without a solicitor. It becomes more difficult and time consuming if LPA has to be set up in an emergency after FIL loses mental capacity.

Yorkshireman99

molan wrote: »

My FiL has recently visited a solicitor to set up his will. He's 80 and in decent health but obviously time to do a will. He has no property or independent pension funds and a sum of around £80K in the bank.

My MiL is the sole beneficiary and there's nothing complicated here. Cost was £280.

The solicitor has strongly recommended that he set up a lasting power of attorney and that he must put two people down. One of these would be my MiL but he has no idea who else to have. He has 6 children but never speaks to any of them and his close friends are all in their 80's too.

Note - there's a few divorces & re-marriages involved here. My link is that I'm married to a daughter of the MiL.

Currently he's likely to choose one of his sons who he hasn't seen for 3-4 years simply because he's the oldest.

The charge for setting this up is £940. My FiL doesn't have a huge sum to keep him afloat and this is a lot of money for them.

This appears to be a simple form and the charge feels really high?

My MiL is questioning why he even needs one as she would obviously look after him should he lose mental capacity.

My concern here is that they've always run separate bank accounts - nothing untoward, just an 'old fashioned' view that the husband looks after the money & pays his wife 'housekeeping' every week.

So, my questions are:

Does he really need to set up an LPA in these circumstances?

If so, is £940 reasonable or should it be much cheaper?

Does he have to have two nominees given that he doesn't have a 2nd person he's actually close to and can trust?

Yes he needs the two POAs and the proposed charge is outrageous. It costs £220 to do it online. All the rules regarding nominees etc. have to be complied with. If he trust you and you wife then why not suggest you act for him. His wife needs them too.

bouicca21

£940 is what I was quoted too, so is presumably the going rate. I'm going to do mine myself. The sticking point was whether my two attorneys should always act together, act together for specified purposes or both be empowered to act on their own.

I discussed this with them and we came to the conclusion that we should go for acting on their own - one might be away for example, (and in your case mil may not be capable).

Effectively this means the bossiest of the two will take the decisions but that's not a problem, she's sensible.

Yorkshireman99

bouicca21 wrote: »

£940 is what I was quoted too, so is presumably the going rate. I'm going to do mine myself. The sticking point was whether my two attorneys should always act together, act together for specified purposes or both be empowered to act on their own.

I discussed this with them and we came to the conclusion that we should go for acting on their own - one might be away for example, (and in your case mil may not be capable).

Effectively this means the bossiest of the two will take the decisions but that's not a problem, she's sensible.

If you don't want to be kept alive artificially make sure the attornies know this and are prepared to act accordingly.

getmore4less

bouicca21 wrote: »

£940 is what I was quoted too, so is presumably the going rate. I'm going to do mine myself. The sticking point was whether my two attorneys should always act together, act together for specified purposes or both be empowered to act on their own.

I discussed this with them and we came to the conclusion that we should go for acting on their own - one might be away for example, (and in your case mil may not be capable).

Effectively this means the bossiest of the two will take the decisions but that's not a problem, she's sensible.

could have one and the other is the replacement.

Keep_pedalling

Is that charge for just him or both of them? Was it for just finance or the health one as well?

Not only should he most definitely have a financial LPA in place so should his wife (has she a will as well?) Come to that you should do yours while you are at it.

In general it is a mistake to have attorneys who have to do everything jointly. Even if they work well together, and often they don't, if one becomes incapacitated the LPA will become worthless.

He should not appoint his son just because he is the oldest. It sounds like he trusts you and your wife so why not appoint one or both of you and second / 3rd attorneys?

DigForVictory

Yes he needs it (and so may MIL.)
£940 is a daft amount - online all the way!
If he'll listen to you now, would he be ready to trust you (if it becomes necessary) to support his wife?

molan

Thanks for all the responses.

Some of this is quite complicated because he doesn't really trust anyone (hence why he hasn't spoken to his kids in years and doesn't have many friends!).

I'm not sure what the £940 covers, it just seemed a very high figure to me.

I'll have a chat with the MiL and see if I can get them to, at least, consider doing things online at lower price.

MallyGirl

We have just got these set up for my mother and stepfather. My mother is trying to get everything sorted out long before it is needed as she is still in her 60s and pretty healthy.
Each has myself, my brother, my step brother and the spouse named but we can all act independently - so that it doesn't all need redoing when one spouse dies. We have 2 LPAs for each of them - Financial and Health & Welfare.
I think it will make everything much less stressful when the time comes for it to be needed.
I don't know how much it cost but £940 sounds a lot

Keep_pedalling

Very difficult to put an LPA in place for someone who trusts no one, but this could cause massive problems for his wife, if he ever lose capacity.

Would he at least be willing to put all his saving into joint accounts? that would remove the need to appoint her as his attorney.