Advice for dad - make bank account joint with child in case something happens to him...

pollypenny

My father made me a signatory on his main current account, so that I could manage his care home fees etc. 

When we knew he was within weeks of death from cancer, I transferred sufficient funds for a funeral to my account, with the blessing of my sisters. We didn't know that banks would pay the funeral director at that time. As we catered at home, there were many extra expenses anyway. 

Takmon

A joint account is a bad idea because it means you are financially linked which can cause problem when applying for credit if one of the two people are less than great at managing their finances, so for this reason alone i would never do it. 
Getting the LPA in place is the best option and that will help with managing everything. 

Tunstallstoven

Thank you so much one and all for the insightful replies.  Very helpful indeed   

A couple of points of note:

Keep_pedalling said:

i would also recommend starting from scratch, something he will have to do if your mother was going to be one of his attorneys.

I've since heard back form the OPG and they confirmed this is only the case if the attorneys are appointed as jointly only.  As Jointly and Severally, the form would still be valid but would have to be submitted to registration with a copy of the death certificate.   

elsien said:

Registering it does not mean dad will lost control of his finances.  I suspect there's some other concern going on  here,  and maybe that's what you need to have a gentle talk about. 

Between you, me and MSE, I think the other concern for his is dishing out the dosh for the registration!    Part of this is because they spent around £400 in getting the forms done in the first place; something I find shocking now that I've seen how basic and uninvolved the forms are.  I'm obviously in the wrong profession!

Anyhow, I'll have another chat with him and take it from there.

Thanks again

Keep_pedalling

Seagull27 said:

Thank you so much one and all for the insightful replies.  Very helpful indeed   

A couple of points of note:

Keep_pedalling said:

i would also recommend starting from scratch, something he will have to do if your mother was going to be one of his attorneys.

I've since heard back form the OPG and they confirmed this is only the case if the attorneys are appointed as jointly only.  As Jointly and Severally, the form would still be valid but would have to be submitted to registration with a copy of the death certificate.   

I would still look at a new LPA if there is anyone else who could act as a second or back-up attorney, just in case anything happens to you. 

Tunstallstoven

Keep_pedalling said:

I would still look at a new LPA if there is anyone else who could act as a second or back-up attorney, just in case anything happens to you. 

My sister is a second attorney.  So the form has me, my sister and my mum on it.  

I have a brother too, but for some reason he was just added as the Person to be Told.  I guess on a new form he could perhaps become a third attorney instead.

So presumably if we decided to go down that route the old form could just be forgotten as it was never registered?  Or is there more to it?  

Also, is doing the new form easy enough for us to do ourselves? 

Many thanks

elsien

Easy enough as long as dad doesn't have complex wishes.  I did my mother's with her. 
However it's your dad's decision as to who his attorneys are and there must have been a reason that your brother was only a person  to be told. 

Tunstallstoven

Yes there was...  Either him misunderstanding the will writer, and/or the will writer not explaining the situation very well!

Keep_pedalling

Seagull27 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

I would still look at a new LPA if there is anyone else who could act as a second or back-up attorney, just in case anything happens to you. 

My sister is a second attorney.  So the form has me, my sister and my mum on it.  

I have a brother too, but for some reason he was just added as the Person to be Told.  I guess on a new form he could perhaps become a third attorney instead.

So presumably if we decided to go down that route the old form could just be forgotten as it was never registered?  Or is there more to it?  

Also, is doing the new form easy enough for us to do ourselves? 

Many thanks

Yes the old forms can be forgotten.

clearingout

My mum wanted me to do this and it makes good, logical sense where there is trust but as I was in receipt of tax credits, it didn't work for us.  In these uncertain economic times, I would urge you to be very careful about making this decision because it could massively impact your own family's situation if a job is lost.   

On the other hand, I know of several people who did this, managed to keep their parents with dementia at home with them until things got too much and avoided having to pay for care home fees because there was someone else's name on the account (and, presumably, was unchallenged because this was a long term thing).   It would be worth looking at the current rules on this if you feel this is a road you might have to go down at some point in the future.  

Fruitcake

LPAs cease to apply on death. If your dad is only concerned about what happens after he is gone, then LPAs won't help.
However, if he is worried he will lose the capacity or ability to manage his health and finances, then LPAs are useful.

For finances only, a family member can be added to an existing account. You don't have to set up a joint account if you don't want to. When my parents started to have problems, I made an appointment with their bank and had my name added to their joint account so I could manage their funds. I couldn't sign cheques, but I could transfer money to my account and pay bills for them.
We set this up initially whilst we were waiting for their LPAs to be processed and it worked well. The LPAs were extremely useful for dealing with HMRC, DWP, Council Tax, company pension, banks, and utility companies etcetera. The hardest part was getting certified copies as you should never send the originals.
Eventually I discovered that my local council would produce certified copies for free, but sadly they now appear to have stopped doing that.
We found however we only needed one copy as everyone returned it after they had registered the LPA.

When my parents moved into a retirement home, and then a nursing home, having the both the Health and Welfare, and Financial Affairs LPA was vital. 

The problem with LPAs is by the time you discover you need them, it is too late to set them up. Personally I wouldn't wait, but understand the financial burden of doing so. Getting added as a named person on a bank account is much quicker, and normally free. Short term it will solve a lot of problems, but long term you may regret not setting up LPAs.

All opinions are my own and should not be taken as legal or financial advice.

You might find a local government approved SOLLA agent (Society Of Later Life Advisors) will give an initial half hour or hour advice for free. We used one for my parents and found things that could be claimed, or things that were exempt, that we had no idea about.