Fund platform with power of attorney

halfordslaner

Hello

we recently found out that my mil is sitting on quite a pot of cash in a really low earning cash isa.  We are looking into moving it into a stocks and shares Isa.  (We both have fidelity ones so do know what we are doing.) 
she is not very tech savvy so really we will be doing it for her anyway but, following a recent hospital stay, we realise a power of attorney is needed in any case. 

Has anyone any experience of fund platforms snd poa whether good or bad?  For instance we’d rather not have to trade via post etc! 

Thanks for any help. 

talexuser

I am in iWeb which is very cheap and a couple of years ago ran my Mum's existing S&S ISA with them with no problems changing to POA when she went into care. Just sent the docs required.

xylophone

Relative managed his relative's ISA with Hargreaves Lansdown through PoA.

eskbanker

halfordslaner said:

we recently found out that my mil is sitting on quite a pot of cash in a really low earning cash isa.  We are looking into moving it into a stocks and shares Isa.  (We both have fidelity ones so do know what we are doing.) 
she is not very tech savvy so really we will be doing it for her anyway but, following a recent hospital stay, we realise a power of attorney is needed in any case. 

Has anyone any experience of fund platforms snd poa whether good or bad?  For instance we’d rather not have to trade via post etc! 

If your mother in law is at the stage where she needs (or is close to needing) her finances managed by someone else under POA, then moving significant chunks of her assets from cash to S&S might not be in her best interests, depending on age, health, current or future care needs, life expectancy, etc?

halfordslaner

Thanks for the replies. 

I’d not heard of iWeb so I’ll have a look.  I had looked at HL and thought they looked ok. 

We wouldn’t plan on all the cash going into a s&s ISA but the cash she is sitting on is effectively decreasing in value as it stands. We don’t anticipate immediate need for care snd are already working on a plan whereby we can move her in with us if needs be. However she had a romantic idea that her son will inherit her cash and if there’s to be any left after paying for care then it needs to start earning some interest.  We would leave some cash in a better cash Isa but invest the rest to try and make a better return.   To be honest she’s useless with money, always has been.  If we’d known she had this much we’d have interfered long ago! 

Thanks again 

Linton

halfordslaner said:

Thanks for the replies. 

I’d not heard of iWeb so I’ll have a look.  I had looked at HL and thought they looked ok. 

We wouldn’t plan on all the cash going into a s&s ISA but the cash she is sitting on is effectively decreasing in value as it stands. We don’t anticipate immediate need for care snd are already working on a plan whereby we can move her in with us if needs be. However she had a romantic idea that her son will inherit her cash and if there’s to be any left after paying for care then it needs to start earning some interest.  We would leave some cash in a better cash Isa but invest the rest to try and make a better return.   To be honest she’s useless with money, always has been.  If we’d known she had this much we’d have interfered long ago! 

Thanks again 

I would share eskbankers concerns and belive that equity investment in most circumstances is not appropriate for Poa for elderly people.
Smoe poinet
1) How woul you explain a major loss in a crash?  Or would you hide it from her? Families and money do not mix well.
2)  The role of an Attorney is to act in the donor's best interests, not those of anyone else such as potential beneficaries..  It is difficult to see how risky investments are in the best interests of the elderly., especially smeone who has never invested before.
3)  You need to think very carefully about having MIL moving in with you if she cannot manage in her own home.  Caring for people with  for example dementia and/or incontinence who may need 24 hour supervision  is best left to the professionals.

xylophone

In my relative's case, the donor was an experienced investor and already had the account with HL before she became  unsteady enough on her feet  (at the age of around 91) to decide to sell  her house and enter a retirement home.

In the first home she entered, she was reasonably mobile with  the help of walking aids and perfectly compos mentis but sadly it was not too long before she needed night time as well as daytime assistance and moved to a care home and finally ( with increasing mental and physical frailty) to a nursing home.

It would certainly have been very hard for family members to have coped with her care in her final couple of years.

Such care is very expensive ( more than £60,000 a year a few years back now)  - it was financed from pension, savings and investment income.

elsien

Part of the function of the LPA is to consider how the person (once they lose capacity) would have acted if they were making their own decisions. Seems unlikely that MIL would suddenly be shoving it into shares at her time of life given that she hasn’t done so up till now. 

Brie

While you are getting the POAs sorted (both financial and health, best to do both) have a look at getting either joint accounts with her or getting third party authority on her bank accounts so you can help her manage on the day to day aspects.  The banks might accept this easily if they know she is currently ok mentally and that there's no POAs in place. 

halfordslaner

Perhaps I didn’t make the situation clear.  When she retired a few years ago she did ask my husband for advice but she chose a bad moment at the end of Christmas Day and quite a lot of wine!  We honestly thought she’d only a small amount of money.  She lives in a council flat….   

She’s poor at money management across the board.  Until we interfered after the hospital stay she was giving virgin over a hundred pounds a month for just cable tv.  Turns out she had multi room etc but only one tv.  It took us about three goes to get that cancelled.  

We wouldn’t be buying shares directly.  We weren’t planning on going all Gordon gekho.  We just thought it would be best to earn some interest rather than none. We planned on a fairly low risk fund or one of the pre made portfolios.  As it stands right now she’s on about 0.1%.  So her assets are decreasing by 10% a year in real terms.  Yes, we could leave it like it is but I’m not really sure she’d want that either.  Like I say, she asked before about investing it.  I also think she has no idea that she will have to pay for her own care.  She’s always saying the money is for my husband.  Like I say, she has no money sense at all. 

Her hospital stay was a result of a fall off a step changing a bulb revealing osteoporosis.  She’s not mentally deficient etc just useless with money.  She’s only 73.  Not ancient.  

Albermarle

As it stands right now she’s on about 0.1%. 

You could improve significantly on this and still stay with safe savings accounts . Fixed rates are paying up to 3.5%

Compare The Best UK Savings Accounts | moneyfacts.co.uk

Now of course, this is still well below inflation. However so far in 2022, a typical medium risk investment, is down about 10% then minus inflation again. Most are resigned to the fact that keeping up with inflation is currently very difficult , whatever you do with your money.

If you were looking more long term though, then some mixture of cash and investments could make sense.