LPOA & Executor liabilities

Keep_pedalling

Has your step mother given anyone a financial LPA? If not this is going to be your major problem if she looses mental capacity. 

You are over thinking this, no one is going to challenge you on this and it is unreasonable for you to insist your step mother keeping you informed on what she is spending household income on. As per my previous post get those finances split, you don’t want to be leaving large sums of cash in a current account in case she falls for a scam and it gets cleared out. 

rightfoot_shifter

poppystar said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Hi

I need advice please on the following, I have a family problem that I am trying to deal with & am concerned with my liability firstly as LPOA & secondly as executor of a will. 

Firstly with the financial LPOA, my elderly father's wife & I both have LPOA for my father. He has his own individual bank account but has become mentally incapacitated, rarely leaves the house. Bills are paid by DD, cheques are also paid. However his wife also has his debit card & PIN number & arranges for cash withdrawals. Sometimes these seem hefty to me. She does not keep records, no record even of who is withdrawing the cash. I cannot always get satisfactory answers from her on where the cash is going.

I am also an executor of my father's will. His assets may be over the HMRC threshold resulting in probate.

For the unrecorded cash withdrawals, what would be deemed an acceptable monthly withdrawal amount for sundry needs by HMRC? What would my liabilities likely to be in terms of HMRC & legal action, in either roles, should my step-mother pre-decease my father, or vice versa?

What do you mean by "hefty"?    £50 a day?   £300 twice a week?   More? 

On the face of it it does sound "fishy", but unless she is prepared to tell you what the cash is being used for, then I'm not sure there is much you can do, without taking the nuclear option of petitioning to have her removed as POA.   

Have you tried to explain that as POA you really both need to be transparent as to what his cash is being used for?

Lets just say this last month had 3 transactions totalling £500. I have indeed tried to explain the transparency to her.

You say the majority of household bills paid by DD?   As that's quite a sum of cash to need, if so.   

Could she argue that she needs that cash as "spousal maintenance"?   Was he previously paying for things she needs?

Otherwise,  how is this cash being used in his best interests? 

She can rightly argue its spousal maintenance while she is still able to. After that ability has lapsed where do I stand? Am I exposed to prove that I haven't appropriated the cash?

By who? If you are executor then who else might claim that? Do you have a concern about a residual beneficiary raising issues? How would they know? 

poppystar said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Hi

I need advice please on the following, I have a family problem that I am trying to deal with & am concerned with my liability firstly as LPOA & secondly as executor of a will. 

Firstly with the financial LPOA, my elderly father's wife & I both have LPOA for my father. He has his own individual bank account but has become mentally incapacitated, rarely leaves the house. Bills are paid by DD, cheques are also paid. However his wife also has his debit card & PIN number & arranges for cash withdrawals. Sometimes these seem hefty to me. She does not keep records, no record even of who is withdrawing the cash. I cannot always get satisfactory answers from her on where the cash is going.

I am also an executor of my father's will. His assets may be over the HMRC threshold resulting in probate.

For the unrecorded cash withdrawals, what would be deemed an acceptable monthly withdrawal amount for sundry needs by HMRC? What would my liabilities likely to be in terms of HMRC & legal action, in either roles, should my step-mother pre-decease my father, or vice versa?

What do you mean by "hefty"?    £50 a day?   £300 twice a week?   More? 

On the face of it it does sound "fishy", but unless she is prepared to tell you what the cash is being used for, then I'm not sure there is much you can do, without taking the nuclear option of petitioning to have her removed as POA.   

Have you tried to explain that as POA you really both need to be transparent as to what his cash is being used for?

Lets just say this last month had 3 transactions totalling £500. I have indeed tried to explain the transparency to her.

You say the majority of household bills paid by DD?   As that's quite a sum of cash to need, if so.   

Could she argue that she needs that cash as "spousal maintenance"?   Was he previously paying for things she needs?

Otherwise,  how is this cash being used in his best interests? 

She can rightly argue its spousal maintenance while she is still able to. After that ability has lapsed where do I stand? Am I exposed to prove that I haven't appropriated the cash?

By who? If you are executor then who else might claim that? Do you have a concern about a residual beneficiary raising issues? How would they know? 

Yes, I am also executor. What about HMRC's 7year rule?

poppystar

Is the estate likely to be liable for IHT anyway? As has been said before there is a good case for this simply being spousal support. If you choose to see it as gifts and if it affects the IHT situation then it is a problem that is being created by seeing them as gifts.

is it possible stepmother is not spending the cash but is simply concerned she might lose access to money and storing the cash under the mattress?

IMO the biggest issue is that the bank has not been informed of the LPA being needed because of the loss of capacity. Your obligation at the moment is to inform them and get new cards in your name and your stepmother’s. It’s this that could come back to bite you not whether or not gifts are involved. 

Then as others have again said, use that authority then to move excess cash out and into savings - both to get interest and to ensure that stepmother isn’t scammed out if it. (There’s also a chance that is what is happening now?). Making sure of course that both of you need to access the accounts jointly. I’m assuming the LPA is joint and you aren’t just the reserve attorney? 

Does stepmother have her own children who you think might be putting pressure on her? 

Keep_pedalling

rightfoot_shifter said:

Ypoppystar said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Hi

I need advice please on the following, I have a family problem that I am trying to deal with & am concerned with my liability firstly as LPOA & secondly as executor of a will. 

Firstly with the financial LPOA, my elderly father's wife & I both have LPOA for my father. He has his own individual bank account but has become mentally incapacitated, rarely leaves the house. Bills are paid by DD, cheques are also paid. However his wife also has his debit card & PIN number & arranges for cash withdrawals. Sometimes these seem hefty to me. She does not keep records, no record even of who is withdrawing the cash. I cannot always get satisfactory answers from her on where the cash is going.

I am also an executor of my father's will. His assets may be over the HMRC threshold resulting in probate.

For the unrecorded cash withdrawals, what would be deemed an acceptable monthly withdrawal amount for sundry needs by HMRC? What would my liabilities likely to be in terms of HMRC & legal action, in either roles, should my step-mother pre-decease my father, or vice versa?

What do you mean by "hefty"?    £50 a day?   £300 twice a week?   More? 

On the face of it it does sound "fishy", but unless she is prepared to tell you what the cash is being used for, then I'm not sure there is much you can do, without taking the nuclear option of petitioning to have her removed as POA.   

Have you tried to explain that as POA you really both need to be transparent as to what his cash is being used for?

Lets just say this last month had 3 transactions totalling £500. I have indeed tried to explain the transparency to her.

You say the majority of household bills paid by DD?   As that's quite a sum of cash to need, if so.   

Could she argue that she needs that cash as "spousal maintenance"?   Was he previously paying for things she needs?

Otherwise,  how is this cash being used in his best interests? 

She can rightly argue its spousal maintenance while she is still able to. After that ability has lapsed where do I stand? Am I exposed to prove that I haven't appropriated the cash?

By who? If you are executor then who else might claim that? Do you have a concern about a residual beneficiary raising issues? How would they know? 

poppystar said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Sea_Shell said:

rightfoot_shifter said:

Hi

I need advice please on the following, I have a family problem that I am trying to deal with & am concerned with my liability firstly as LPOA & secondly as executor of a will. 

Firstly with the financial LPOA, my elderly father's wife & I both have LPOA for my father. He has his own individual bank account but has become mentally incapacitated, rarely leaves the house. Bills are paid by DD, cheques are also paid. However his wife also has his debit card & PIN number & arranges for cash withdrawals. Sometimes these seem hefty to me. She does not keep records, no record even of who is withdrawing the cash. I cannot always get satisfactory answers from her on where the cash is going.

I am also an executor of my father's will. His assets may be over the HMRC threshold resulting in probate.

For the unrecorded cash withdrawals, what would be deemed an acceptable monthly withdrawal amount for sundry needs by HMRC? What would my liabilities likely to be in terms of HMRC & legal action, in either roles, should my step-mother pre-decease my father, or vice versa?

What do you mean by "hefty"?    £50 a day?   £300 twice a week?   More? 

On the face of it it does sound "fishy", but unless she is prepared to tell you what the cash is being used for, then I'm not sure there is much you can do, without taking the nuclear option of petitioning to have her removed as POA.   

Have you tried to explain that as POA you really both need to be transparent as to what his cash is being used for?

Lets just say this last month had 3 transactions totalling £500. I have indeed tried to explain the transparency to her.

You say the majority of household bills paid by DD?   As that's quite a sum of cash to need, if so.   

Could she argue that she needs that cash as "spousal maintenance"?   Was he previously paying for things she needs?

Otherwise,  how is this cash being used in his best interests? 

She can rightly argue its spousal maintenance while she is still able to. After that ability has lapsed where do I stand? Am I exposed to prove that I haven't appropriated the cash?

By who? If you are executor then who else might claim that? Do you have a concern about a residual beneficiary raising issues? How would they know? 

Yes, I am also executor. What about HMRC's 7year rule?

As per my previous reply, the 7 year rule does not apply on transfers between spouses.