Gifting with Power of Attorney

Singlemummy_2

Why don’t you just help her set up telephone banking. It’s not difficult as far as I remember, then she can manage such transactions herself. 

MikeJXE

Why is this becoming complicated when it’s not complicated at all

Forget the LPA 

The mother has mental capacity so that doesn’t come into play.

She wants to gift you £50,000 so just do it, it’s no one else’s business.

I’m 83 years old and didn’t need all the money I held in the bank so I wrote each of my 2 kids and 4 grandkids a check for £10,000 3 years ago 

If she doesn’t have a cheque book then she needs to write a letter to the bank and order one. 

Simple 

FlorayG

My mom wanted to gift me £3,000 cash to buy something I wanted. I went to her bank for the withdrawal ( already had her LPA there) they called me into a side room and did all sorts of fraud investigations and then they called her for confirmation that she wanted to do this. After that they gave me the money.
In extremis, could you put her in your car and take her to the nearest branch, wherever it is?

EssexHebridean

This may be barking up the wrong tree but...

Currently the LPA has only be put into action for matters which require being dealt with our of the home - is this the case?  If so - does your mother still have a cheque book for the account the money would be coming from? If she does, might her writing a cheque solve the problem here? (Even assuming that there *is* a problem, although even if technically not, I can see how the OP could feel awkward about the way things are going to have to pan out otherwise.

Failing that OP, is your Mum completely unable to leave the house, or could she make it to a bank branch with a lot of help from you/a borrowed wheelchair or whatever? 

Another option - are there other Attorneys in place who can act severally? 

Farway

Slightly OT, but whatever you decide & how it is done, make sure it is very well documented, preferably by her, why your mum wants to give you the money, and make clear if it is gift or loan

Should the worse happen & she requires nursing home care, or you need to sort out Inheritance Tax, you may come across the deprivation of assets rules

Savvy_Sue

Farway said:

Slightly OT, but whatever you decide & how it is done, make sure it is very well documented, preferably by her, why your mum wants to give you the money, and make clear if it is gift or loan

Should the worse happen & she requires nursing home care, or you need to sort out Inheritance Tax, you may come across the deprivation of assets rules

I am not sure that documenting it carefully would help with Deprivation of Assets, and I'd also say that UNLESS she clearly has sufficient assets apart from this £50K to last her into her next century - even if she needed to go into a top of the range residential care home within a matter of months - DofA would definitely become an issue. 

She is already unable to leave home, according to the OP, which to me indicates that a level of care and support is already essential, and it is unlikely that these needs will decrease - rather it's likely that they will increase. 

Now, at the moment and for the foreseeable future, the OP may feel that they will not need to use any external carers, but that may change suddenly and unexpectedly, for all sorts of reasons. As long as Mum is able to pay for her own care, at home or elsewhere, that's fine. But if Mum's assets fall to a level where the local authority assess that they are liable to support her, then giving away £50K definitely looks like deliberate Dof A. 

mjg22

Thanks for the replies, they've been very helpful.

I got in touch with the solicitors and bank today. As she still has mental capacity the solicitors advised us to get a Deed of Gift. The bank confirmed they would accept this and then give her a call when we request the transfer to verify everything. Hopefully this may help others in the same situation who may come across this post in the future.

In terms of the concerns raised about deprivation of assets in regards to any potential future care needs.. I'm not going to go into private details but she has more than sufficient money to provide any care she may need for the rest of her life. I would never accept her offer if this was not the case.