Lasting Power of Attorney—should it be this difficult?

Docsaibal

It took me almost 6 months to successfully create a Lasting Power of Attorney for myself, the attorney being a friend and neighbour, due to the OPG’s bungling. I have recently been diagnosed with heart disease and wanted to ensure my frail elderly mum had ready access to her finances if I wasn’t able to operate her accounts for her (which I normally do). I opted for my attorney to operate even while I have capacity. 

(I also happen to hold an LPA for mum, by the by).

Now I have several bank accounts, ISAs and an investment portfolio, the latter being managed by my IFA.

I tried to get the LPA registered with my main account for starters. Turns out it’s not as simple as giving the bank the digital activation key. I have to take the whole original document with other forms of ID into the branch after making an appointment and be prepared for it to take an hour just to have it registered. 

Now multiply that by a dozen such interactions with other financial institutions. Who on earth has that kind of time to spend? 

I’ve dealt with similar things before but my parents’ financial affairs were a lot more straightforward, even though it could still be a pfaff. 

Is there something fundamentally designed to make it this fiendish and complicated, so that funds default to the state’s possession when ordinary people just can’t be bothered to jump through all these endless hoops? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick and imagining problems instead?

p00hsticks

Docsaibal said:

Is there something fundamentally designed to make it this fiendish and complicated, so that funds default to the state’s possession when ordinary people just can’t be bothered to jump through all these endless hoops? Or am I getting the wrong end of the stick and imagining problems instead?

What on earth makes you think that 'funds would default to the state's possession' ?

Keep_pedalling

The only way your assets would end up going to the Crown is if you die intestate with no qualifying relatives to inherit. Have you actually made a will?

Your LPA will only allow your attorney to manage your finances not your mother’s. If you die before her, your LPA ends and hers fails as there will no longer be an attorney to act.

There would currently seem to be no urgency on registering the LPA with your banks eat, we have has our LPAs in place for 10 years but have not registered them with any of our financial institutions. Have you given your attorney a certified copy of the LPA.

Maybe it is time to simplify your finances. We reduced our bank accounts to two a main one and a back up.

p00hsticks

Docsaibal said:

I tried to get the LPA registered with my main account for starters. Turns out it’s not as simple as giving the bank the digital activation key. I have to take the whole original document with other forms of ID into the branch after making an appointment and be prepared for it to take an hour just to have it registered. 

Just to add, I suspect this very much depends on how recent the LPA is and the particular bank in question.

I recently got LPA for my elderly mother and was fully anticipating having to get both her and me into a branch of Lloyds to register it with them. I was very pleasantly surprised when phoning up to try to make an appointment to do so that they could do it all over the phone once I'd obtained and shared an activation code with them, and also provide me with online and phone access to mum's account. And I'm not even a customer of theirs. 

Mands

p00hsticks said:

Docsaibal said:

I tried to get the LPA registered with my main account for starters. Turns out it’s not as simple as giving the bank the digital activation key. I have to take the whole original document with other forms of ID into the branch after making an appointment and be prepared for it to take an hour just to have it registered. 

Just to add, I suspect this very much depends on how recent the LPA is and the particular bank in question.

I recently got LPA for my elderly mother and was fully anticipating having to get both her and me into a branch of Lloyds to register it with them. I was very pleasantly surprised when phoning up to try to make an appointment to do so that they could do it all over the phone once I'd obtained and shared an activation code with them, and also provide me with online and phone access to mum's account. And I'm not even a customer of theirs. 

I'm in a similar situation, getting a valid LPA for my mother recognised by the organisations she deals with. I've been surprised at the variations in approachs, no two have been remotely similar. 

Shout out to HSBC who have an online portal I was able to submit all the details, including the activation key, to. They followed up with a phone call, to my overseas number, to talk me through the next steps.

A grim response from DWP who hold no truck with this modern activation key nonsense. They were firm that they require a hard copy certified copy of the LPA sent to them. 

An honorable mention goes, as always, to NS&I. They accepted all the details by letter, gave me access to mum's accounts but didn't bother to tell me, I only found out when I logged into my account and found hers. They then, over the course of multiple calls, gave incorrect information before blocking access to a new account as I hadn't provided information they hadn't asked for. A complaint resulted in them listening back to *hours* of calls I'd made and them saying "it's clear you were misadvised on every single call you made to us. Would you accept a chunk of cash and an apology to make this go away?"