Elderly Friendly Accounts

dothenumbersaddup

Hello, we used to look at getting the best interest rates for my parents, but now they are much older and there is the prospect of invoking LPA’s or dealing with probate, we are thinking that it would be better to chose current account, saving accounts and ISA accounts with institutions that were best of class to engage with on these issues, even if the rates are worse.  I wonder if other members have any experience or recommendations that would help as we revamp their banking arrangements.

p00hsticks

I found Lloyds very helpful in registering a LPA and setting me up with access to online banking and a POA debit card, all done over the phone. 

For financial accounts, it's also worth looking at the limits above which probate is required - for example, NS&I's is very low at £5,000. That's not so much of an issue if the estate includes other assets such as property or shares that will require probate anyhow, but I'm having to spend £300 on a probate application which is only necessary because a single savings account with a particular building society is just over their threshold. 

Barkin

When my father died a couple of years ago, the bereavement dept at Lloyds were fantastic.
Nationwide were an absolute nightmare to deal with.

My wife recently needed to register a financial LPA, for her father, with Barclays. It required a branch visit, but they were very helpful and it was sorted quite quickly.
IIRC the attorney needs to have a Barclays account in order for the LPA account to be added to their online account/app. No idea if they all work that way.

Just my own recent experience...

Runner_Duck

I found Shawbrook, Kent Reliance, Coventry BS and Close Bros. all pretty helpful particularly their bereavement department.  NS&I were probably the least helpful.  All of them had different requirements for what documents they needed to close the accounts, most but not all, would pay funeral expenses and IHT costs.  I'd gradually moved my mother's accounts to shorter bonds but none of them made any charge for closing the account early. Good point from p00sticks about limits that require probate, we always knew we were in IHT territory so that was not an issue for us. 

lr1277

Your initial post isn't clear in my mind; are your parents going to continue to manage their affairs are you going to take over all of it?

If you parents are going to continue to manage their affairs, how comfortable are they with online or apps?

You and they need to look at the communication methods available for each financial institution and possibly even by products of that institution.

One possibility is NS&I, despite the downsides listed above, for the NS&I income bonds I believe a customer can manage the account online by phone or by post. No idea about the communication channels for the other NS&I accounts. Would your parents agree to these communication channels?

Barkin

Runner_Duck said:

I found Shawbrook, Kent Reliance, Coventry BS and Close Bros. all pretty helpful 

As far as I'm aware, none of those offer current accounts.

Gers

For me NS&I were good. Both my now late DM and I had PB and I had triggered the POA with them years beforehand so her account showed on my dashboard. Once she died the asked for a copy of the Will and DC (uploaded online if I remember correctly) and very shortly afterwards closed DM's holdings and sent me the monies by FP. And it was more than three times the £5k quoted above.

Maybe I got lucky, but I was content with their service.

tealady

Another thumbs down for Nationwide.
In order to receive inheritances legatees had to open accounts to have their share paid into. I found the staff I dealt with borderline rude or unhelpful.

Runner_Duck

Barkin said:

Runner_Duck said:

I found Shawbrook, Kent Reliance, Coventry BS and Close Bros. all pretty helpful 

As far as I'm aware, none of those offer current accounts.

Granted but they do offer savings accounts and ISAs that the OP also mentioned.

Barkin

Runner_Duck said:

Barkin said:

Runner_Duck said:

I found Shawbrook, Kent Reliance, Coventry BS and Close Bros. all pretty helpful 

As far as I'm aware, none of those offer current accounts.

Granted but they do offer savings accounts and ISAs that the OP also mentioned.

Ahh - I (mis) read the OP as wanting everything 'under one roof'. 

My bad. 

cwep2

Had lots of problems with HSBC setting up POA access for my father.

Had to visit branch maybe 6-7 times and they lost paperwork - including the ORIGINAL Lasting Power of Attorney document which cannot be replaced (as he is now not of sound mind to do another one). The branch staff at fairly big branches seemed totally lost with the process also, and this is the sort of thing that does need a branch visit, usually with an appointment made in advance.

One thing also with HSBC was that only one person can have online/app access, you can't both do it. In my Father's case he wanted to be able to log in and see transactions, statements and with the help of my mother (his wife) was able to do basic stuff, but there was no half way house with HSBC even for view only access. So once I was set up with access he completely lost his. He still has a debit card etc for spending/ATM withdrawals, but this was hard for him to let go / lose this access.