Putting all of my mother's savings into an account under my name?

GustyGardenGalaxy

Are there likely to be any problems with me putting the bulk of my mother's savings into an account of my own? Would this invite any kind of unwanted attention from any parties? Is this perfectly legal to do?

Here's some history as to why I'm asking this:

My brother and I have a Lasting Power of Attorney (Financial and Property) for our mother's finances which, for some reason, was set up as "Jointly" some years ago - this means that my brother and myself must act together regarding all financial and property transactions. Unfortunately our mother has just had to go into a care home so we need to be able to manage her finances.

Most of our mother's savings are in an account with National Savings and Investments.

Even though this is an online account, NS&I have told us that every single time we wish to transfer some money from our mother's account the NS&I need a signed letter from my brother and myself. This is a real nuisance because my brother lives in America. We also cannot have full online access to our mother's account so cannot initiate transfers online or on the phone.

I had the idea that I could set up my own NS&I account and transfer all of my mother's funds into my new account. This would be for the soul purpose of making my mother's funds easier to manage. The funds would not be used to pay for anything else other than our mother's needs.

I am though wondering if doing this would cause some alarm bells to ring. Maybe if I put all of our mother's funds into my own new NS&I account somebody might think, for example, that I had just received a taxable windfall of some sort. Some other body may question why I have suddenly "adopted" all of my mother's funds and think something dodgy is going onto (which it isn't!). Etc.

For some reason I think my idea may not be possible. Any thoughts please?

xylophone

This would be for the soul purpose of making my mother's funds easier to manage.

Sole?:)

As PoA, you must keep your mother's accounts separate from your own.

https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/overview

You are sure that the power is not "joint and several"?

Would your brother wish to revoke?

JohnRo

It sounds like it's your mum and brother you need to be having this discussion with.

Has your mum lost her capacity to make decisions?

patientperson

Any account or holdings that is in your name will be deemed as your money as far as HMRC is concerned. So any interest received on any account is again your responsibility and not your mother.

GustyGardenGalaxy

xylophone wrote: »

Sole?:)

Ooops - yup, sole of course.

As PoA, you must keep your mother's accounts separate from your own.

https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/overview

Ah, I see. Thanks for that clarification.

You are sure that the power is not "joint and several"?

Positive I'm afraid, it's Jointly.

Would your brother wish to revoke?

Revoke? How is that done? I would have hoped that the solicitor would have suggested that if it was possible?

Be_Happy

As Xylophone says above, have you checked the wording of the POA.

My sister and I have joint POA for our younger sister, but we can act independantly and this has never been queried when using it. We each have a certified copy to use.

I should add that joint POA is invaluable. My mother had sole POA over our sister and we were lucky that we were able to get POA over sister when Mum died. A year later and our sister would have lost mental capacity to grant POA and we would have been faced with the expensive Court of Protection route. So having a joint POA makes things easier if a POA holder dies.

GustyGardenGalaxy

xylophone wrote: »

Would your brother wish to revoke?

Further to this, I see that:

"If you’re the only attorney or have to make joint decisions with other attorneys and any of you stop being an attorney when there are no replacements, the lasting power usually ends. You’ll need to find another way to help the donor make decisions."

Therefore if my brother revokes then, from reading the above, the LPA would end.

Is that right?

FOREVER21

You mentioned. your mother has gone into a care home, how is this to be funded?

The Local Authority might start asking questions if large amounts of money are suddenly transferred out of her account, they might consider this an attempt at depreciation of assets.

GustyGardenGalaxy

xylophone wrote: »

As PoA, you must keep your mother's accounts separate from your own.

https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/overview

I see that the key word is separate - from what I've read here:

https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/property-financial-affairs

there should be no reason why I can't set up an NS&I account under my name and simply put all of my mother's NS&I savings into it. That would still be a separate account and would only be used to pay for fees, items, etc related to my mother.

GustyGardenGalaxy

FOREVER21 wrote: »

You mentioned. your mother has gone into a care home, how is this to be funded?

The Local Authority might start asking questions if large amounts of money are suddenly transferred out of her account, they might consider this an attempt at depreciation of assets.

Because my mother is over the threshold with her savings, she is self funding. The local authority aren't paying anything towards her care.

Linton

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

I see that the key word is separate - from what I've read here:

https://www.gov.uk/lasting-power-attorney-duties/property-financial-affairs

there should be no reason why I can't set up an NS&I account under my name and simply put all of my mother's NS&I savings into it. That would still be a separate account and would only be used to pay for fees, items, etc related to my mother.

Still a bad idea. If you were to die the money could be seen as yours and the account frozen. Doubly bad news for mother. It would seem the PoA requires that both you and your brother approve any transactions. You (or your solicitor) need to get round that problem in a legally solid way.