Opening Online Bank/Saving Accounts For Elderly Parent

BooJewels

When I set mine up with Santander they have help pages and forms on their web site and a dedicated team for registering LPAs - so it's perhaps down to finding the right people to speak to initially.

A general enquiry may well find someone who isn't knowledgeable on such matters, as it perhaps isn't within their remit. It seems to be a rare thing these days where someone says "I don't know the answer to that, but I'll find out for you". Probably because staff are timed on tasks and trained to get stuff done with and away as quickly as possible - people no longer seem to take ownership of issues and see them through.

New_York_No1_fan

I have managed my mother’s accounts under a POA for 5 yrs and I agree it is best to speak to each dedicated POA team for correct advice.
Quite often I have enquired about opening an account for my mother online and been turned down however, it transpires that they can often be opened by post and then Managed online. It’s possible that this is what the Skipton advisor meant.

Advisors have a very limited knowledge of how their establishments operate these accounts and I have had many disagreements with them over the years. POA is the bane of my life but near on impossible without.

HUMBUG

BooJewels said:

HUMBUG wrote: »

Maybe different banks and building societies have different rules about LPA's . Looks like Skipton is a no go ! I'll ask Santander .

Sorry, I must have missed this earlier. I wonder if you're getting a little confused (I know I am a bit now) - an LPA may well not allow you to open new accounts and transfer your father's money in to them (with any bank) - and the application of a bit of common sense would suggest why this perhaps shouldn't be possible.

I think the premise of an LPA is to assist in managing the donor's affairs, not necessarily make entirely new ones for them -and it's perhaps right that there should be some limitations on doing so. And one of the principles of the code of practice is that you should keep their money separate from your own.

Whilst your father has issues that might justify some assistance, is there any reason why the two of you can't attend a bank/BS together to open a joint account - whilst he's in good mental shape and the bank staff can ascertain that he's not being co-erced?

We did that around the same time as my father set up the LPA a couple of years ago - I have a joint account with him at one bank and my sister likewise with another (only because we couldn't all be in the same place at the same time) - staff asked us to leave the room and checked with him that he was happy with the arrangement. His solicitor had suggested this as a stop gap arrangement for either the time before the LPA was registered, or possibly after his death if bills needed paying etc. - we'd both have access to funds in an emergency. He put some money in each account and I've added to 'mine' periodically, as I sell things for him, like his car and other possessions. He's entirely funding his own care, so it doesn't make any difference to the authorities - and it's very much still his own money.

Skipton and TSB were allowing me to open an online account for my fathers existing current/savings accounts (which of course is easier than him or myself going direct to the branch) but will not allow me to access and manage it online (it has to be my father) . If I did manage his online account (without their permission )  and his account was compromised due to something I did in error , then he wouldn't get his money back.

I will visit TSB and Skipton and speak to someone in person.

BooJewels

HUMBUG said:

Skipton and TSB were allowing me to open an online account for my fathers existing current/savings accounts (which of course is easier than him or myself going direct to the branch) but will not allow me to access and manage it online (it has to be my father) . If I did manage his online account (without their permission )  and his account was compromised due to something I did in error , then he wouldn't get his money back.

I will visit TSB and Skipton and speak to someone in person.

I'm not sure that I'm grasping the distinction as per the bits in bold.  As I've said previously, the LPA should allow you to register with the bank/building society in order to manage his existing accounts on-line - that's one of the LPA's core functions - allowing you to act on behalf of the donor, when they aren't able to do so for themselves.  Each financial institution no doubt has their own rules and procedure for registering them in the first instance, but I would be surprised if any of them 'would not allow it' if you went through the appropriate procedure to register the LPA properly. Some organisations may make you jump through quite a few hoops in order to do so - and where money is concerned, I would expect that to be the case.

As per other posts I made in the thread, you perhaps need to find the right department at the bank to speak to about such matters - local staff, or general helpline staff may not be sufficiently knowledgeable about such matters - although having said that, the local staff I dealt with at 2 different banks were helpful, understanding and sorted out issues I needed to deal with on my donor's behalf.  

Frogletina

I had power of attorney for my ex husband who had alzheimers. His accounts were with the Coventry Building Society and once I took over I could see he had been taking out up to £400 a month in cash, and as a family we had no idea what he was spending this on - there was very little sign of him buying things other than small amounts of food for him and his cats

When I took over dealing with his finances, his accounts were added to the list of accounts that I had online. However, he still had the building society book and was able to go and withdraw money for his immediate needs although now his daughter did his main shopping each week for which she was reimbursed by me, and I dealt with paying for all other expenses.

After a while, it was clear that he was still taking out more that he needed and I was told by the branch that they could only suggest he took out a lesser amount.

In the end, I was able to get another account set up for him in which I deposited only £50 a time and topped it up as necessary. The other reason why I opened this second account was that he was pestered by charities all of the time who just knocked on the door and he would just hand over his book which had details in it for direct debits and standing orders, and they would fill in the forms for him and he would sign for regular payments to them. Even with POA. when the charities were contacted, they didn't seem to comprehend the situation, saying he had agreed to them. We rarely saw any paperwork for these 'agreements'.  

BooJewels

Frogletina said:

[...]The other reason why I opened this second account was that he was pestered by charities all of the time who just knocked on the door and he would just hand over his book which had details in it for direct debits and standing orders, and they would fill in the forms for him and he would sign for regular payments to them. Even with POA. when the charities were contacted, they didn't seem to comprehend the situation, saying he had agreed to them. We rarely saw any paperwork for these 'agreements'.  

That was a similar issue I had with my father's affairs, he was paying something like 14 DDs a month to charities and all but one of the cheques in his cheque book had been made out to charity lotteries and the like.  Thankfully, I found all of them were very obliging when I rang to cancel the arrangements (he simply couldn't afford to continue, as he's self funding his care) and many sent letters to thank him for his contributions - some with totals donated, which was quite an eye opener.  Thankfully, they all cancelled without any issue and whilst I still get odd pieces of mail, that too has largely stopped now.  A year ago I was getting 10+ items of mail a day for him - now down to a couple a week.  I think once they get on suckers lists, it just snowballs out of control.