Registering power of attorney at banks

voddyman

Hi, I am a tad confused regarding the registration of my wives and my power of attorney.

So, today we went to our respective banks with whom we have joint current accounts.

We were told that as they are joint current accounts we do not have to register them and that they will only need to be registered in the scenario where one of us is no longer able to look after our own health and financial affairs and that is when our daughters will then have to go into the bank and get the power of attorneys registered as they are our next in line that are on our official power of attorney documentation to look after our health and financial affairs.

So, can someone please tell me if all that we have been told is correct and if it is not,what are the steps we need to take to correct everything please.

Many Thanks from a worried man.

Twopints

Re: joint current accounts, that appears correct. You should each be able to access the account(s) individually without needing to use the LPA (unless the account requires joint signatures).

As far as I am aware you do not need to register the LPA's with anyone other than the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) until they need to be used. It is the attorney or attorneys that will then need to register the LPA with whichever body (bank, council, govt dept, etc.) they need to deal with, so that they can act on the donor's behalf. 

Keep_pedalling

The bank are correct you don’t need to register these for a joint account, in fact you only need to register them with any account until you actually need them. Ours have been in place for 10 years and have not been registered with any of our financial institutions.

When I was an attorney for my mother we only registered it with her bank when he4 poor mobility ment I was doing most of her shopping.

voddyman

Thank you both so much, I was making myself ill worrying that I wasn't doing the right thing.

You have put my overactive mind at rest.

Thank you so much 👏👏😃😃