Cost to me of power of attorney

barrowman

I am thinking of asking my son in law to have power of attorney for me as I am now 81 and am concerned that I could deteriorate mentally. A friend has power of attorney for someone and has said that he has been told that debt claims could be demanded for him to pay out of his own funds. Is this correct?

Keep_pedalling

No that is totally wrong. 

It would be wise to have more than one attorney either to act jointly and severally or as a back-up attorney. 

barrowman

I thought it would be and told him so. He said it was an article in a newspaper in which someone was supposed to have to pay quite a large sum. As to "more than one attorney either to act jointly and severally or as a back-up attorney" I think I would ask my daughter to join with my son in law. I'm confident they would do their very best for me.

MEM62

barrowman said:

A friend has power of attorney for someone and has said that he has been told that debt claims could be demanded for him to pay out of his own funds. Is this correct?

People really should keep their mouths shut when they don't know what they are talking about.  

barrowman said:

He said it was an article in a newspaper in which someone was supposed to have to pay quite a large sum. 

Probably only half the story, taken out of context and greatly misunderstood.  

FlorayG

A Power of Attorney just gives someone permission to help you manage and distribute YOUR money the way you want to. They don't have any financial involvement or responsibility. If you are in debt that doesn't affect their finances

Keep_pedalling

FlorayG said:

A Power of Attorney just gives someone permission to help you manage and distribute YOUR money the way you want to. They don't have any financial involvement or responsibility. If you are in debt that doesn't affect their finances

They actually have quite a lot of responsibility to manage the donor’s finances appropriately if the donor looses mental capacity.

They must managedthe assets in the best interests of the donor not anyone else’s, and could get into hot water for not doing so.

Provided they do that they have nothing to worry about .

badmemory

I would suspect that the POA had not behaved in a way a POA should.  It is their responsibility to act in the best interests of the person that they are POA for.  You need to be able to trust any POA totally.

For example, I have a friend who was going to give his son a POA.  I was a little blunt & told him I wouldn't trust him with a fiver to go to the local chippy.  Thankfully he didn't take it amiss & used his stepson instead.  But it is very easy to get it wrong.