Savings with power of attorney

[Deleted User]

We have power of attorney for my wife's mother who is in a care home with dementia 
    We want to open a new savings accounts to maximise her interest which goes to pay for her home fees but  we find it is almost impossible to do this on line to get the best rates. We keep getting stuck by the power of attorney which seems to be like a brick wall! Any suggestions please ?

xylophone

   We want to open a new savings accounts to maximise her interest which goes to pay for her home fees but  we find it is almost impossible to do this on line to get the best rates. We keep getting stuck by the power of attorney which seems to be like a brick wall! Any suggestions please ?

You will need to register the PoA with the financial organisation offering the account (s).

Examples

https://www.ybs.co.uk/help/registering-power-of-attorney

https://www.coventrybuildingsociety.co.uk/member/help/member-support/power-of-attorney.html

[Deleted User]

Great thanks very much

Brocade

We are in the same situation as j2wheeler. But have also come across another problem, we went into Nationwide to ask about their procedure for setting up a savings account for mum, but the doubted they could help as we wouldn't be able to prove her identity - being 89 with severe dementia she naturally hasn't had a passport or driving license for some time.
Any suggestions, please?

Keep_pedalling

Brocade said:

We are in the same situation as j2wheeler. But have also come across another problem, we went into Nationwide to ask about their procedure for setting up a savings account for mum, but the doubted they could help as we wouldn't be able to prove her identity - being 89 with severe dementia she naturally hasn't had a passport or driving license for some time.
Any suggestions, please?

If you went in with the LPA or certified copy it is your proof of identity that should be required not your MIL.

Freecall

Keep_pedalling said:

If you went in with the LPA or certified copy it is your proof of identity that should be required not your MIL.

Exactly, there is no need (or indeed point) to atempting to establish the identity of the subject of the Attorney.

talexuser

I arranged all my mother's ISA, pension and savings a couple of years ago. Unfortunately the competance of institutions with regard to POA is pretty poor. It can be done but you need to ring round all the top payers to find one that works for you, there is no other way around. Lloyds were just awful, 3 visits to a branch because could not tell me in advance what they required for her bank account. Coventry and Yorkshire Building Socs were much better at the time. The registered copy of LPA is all that is required mostly, either in person or by registered post

Freecall

I did the same about 20 years ago.  I think things were a lot easier then though, staff seemed to understand the process better and pretty much did what was required without difficulty.

I think that things are simply more difficult these days, or at least sometimes appear that way.

 

SnowMan

Providers seem to vary.

Opening an account with a savings provider you hold an account with yourself can somewhat streamline things (don't need your own identity documents for example), although you still need to send in (or take into a branch if they have one) the power of attorney or certified copy of the power of attorney. The access codes that can be used for lasting power of attorneys may make life easier, although I've no experience of that.

Savings institutions with special numbers for the power of attorney team are easiest, as you can typically get through to someone quickly who knows what they are talking about. Coventry Building society mentioned above for example are very good.

At the other end of the scale you have the providers like Virgin Money who are abysmal. They have no special power of attorney number and you can't even get transferred to the power of attorney team if you ring up. The power of attorney team don't deal directly with attorneys on the phone apparently. Most of their power of attorney team are working from home, which is the reason they give for them not being contactable; they seem to expect you to say 'well that's alright then, what a great policy to have them working from home'. If you want to speak to the team best you can do is get a message through to that team via the main customer services but you are given no idea how long it will take for them to get back, and when you do it will be a third party message from the customer services team.

BooJewels

I too have found using an LPA more problematic than it should be with financial institutions.   My aunts bank Barclays were especially tiresome - I had to attend her branch 50 miles away, the girl made us wait 75 minutes after our appointment time, didn't like any of the 23 pieces of ID/proof of address I'd taken, then rang my aunt when she went off to copy the LPA we'd taken and asked her a load of security questions saying 2 women were in the bank trying to get access to her bank account. 

Especially insensitive when we were only there because she'd just been the victim of a scam by someone claiming to work at the bank. I'd told her not to speak to anyone without use of a password I'd set up.  So my aunt failed the security check as she refused to answer - she chose not to answer - many might not be able to.  I told them that the LPA was the representation of my aunt and she claimed it didn't work like that.  Thankfully the LPA department I had been dealing behind the scenes were significantly more obliging and sorted it quickly after that. 

I've had similar poor experiences elsewhere - it seems down to staff not understanding how either an LPA works, or how their organisation manages / processes them.  I've sat for quite a few hours in places whilst they try and find out what to do with it. 

I've also noticed on my travels around the T&Cs of many savings accounts that they don't allow you to open them as an Attorney - because I'm going to need to do something similar myself shortly too.

SnowMan

Sorry to read that BooJewels, sounds an awful experience