POA - Adding the Agent as a party to an Account

conboy28ha53fg

My Father in Law is in a critical condition in Hospital and not expected survive. My wife is an Agent under a POA. Would his Bank on her request amend his sole named bank account into a joint account between him and her? Has anyone requested their Bank to do this? I perceive the advantage as being in control of the Bank account post death and not requiring to obtain probate.

elsien

No, because that could effectively giving her half the money. Which is not in his best interest.

She should register the account to be used with her power of attorney and leave it on his sole name. 

If he has few other assets then probate may not be needed

Keep_pedalling

No, an attorney can only act in the best interests of the donor and this is beyond her authority. 

How much is in the bank, and what bank is it? Most banks have quite high limits in how much they will pay to the administrator of an estate before they require probate. 

FlorayG

No
He should have done this while he was still mentally capable to do it himself. The bank won't accept her authority on it

FlorayG

elsien said:

No, because that could effectively giving her half the money. Which is not in his best interest.

She should register the account to be used with her power of attorney and leave it on his sole name. 

If he has few other assets then probate may not be needed

Actually he would be in effect giving her ALL the money - and it would all become legally hers when he died

eskbanker

elsien said:

No, because that could effectively giving her half the money. Which is not in his best interest.

She should register the account to be used with her power of attorney and leave it on his sole name. 

If he has few other assets then probate may not be needed

While this is the correct answer, in the sense of what she's permitted to do under her power of attorney, it's probably worth noting that this doesn't (legally) allow her to access his money after he dies, as PoA expires at that point.

However, if she's his executor, then, once notifying the bank of his death and this status, then the relevant arrangements can be put in place to deal with the account at that stage.

Zanderman

conboy28ha53fg said:

My Father in Law is in a critical condition in Hospital and not expected survive. My wife is an Agent under a POA. Would his Bank on her request amend his sole named bank account into a joint account between him and her? Has anyone requested their Bank to do this? I perceive the advantage as being in control of the Bank account post death and not requiring to obtain probate.

If she has PoA she should be using that to access the account - for his benefit, not hers or yours - whilst he is alive. That's the whole purpose of PoA - it's not to make accounts joint, it's to allow accounts to be managed on someone's behalf. 

Making the account joint is not doing that - it's unnecessary in life (as she has PoA so can manage it regardless) and effectively gifts the money to your wife (so not to his benefit) on his death.  Arguably, if the amount is a large amount, that might make it subject to inheritance tax as it would be a 'gift' given within 7 years of the death. 

On the other hand, as others have said, if the amount of money in that specific account is not large then it may be released without probate, to whoever is the executor. So you may be over-worrying as well as suggesting mis-use of a PoA.

What you're suggesting is not the right approach. PoA use is regulated, and should be done properly. Access to accounts after death is the executor's job, as the PoA will no longer exist.

PRAISETHESUN

Another comment to say that you should only use the POA to access the account for the interest of the donor. Whilst they are alive you need to act in their best interest, not in the best interest of their estate/beneficiaries. I agree that it would be an overstep of the POA to make the account joint.

conboy28ha53fg

Thank you all for your comments, they make great sense and clear up this area in my mind.