Power of Attorney

freccles

I'm 70 years old, currently fairly fit and with it. My only relatives and the only people to benefit in my will are my daughter and granddaughters. Is it worth setting up POA? Pros and cons?

mebu60

LPA (Lasting PoA). Yes. Two. Health & Welfare and Property & Financial Affairs. £82 each DIY. 

This is to cover any time before your will is executed when you may not be fit and with it. 

Main pro is the cost and complication of your daughter or others having to go to court if an LPA is required when you have lost mental capacity. Doing it now also ensures your wishes can be clearly articulated.

The main con is appointing an attorney(s) who turn out to be untrustworthy. 

Keep_pedalling

This would be a very sensible thing to do and there are no cons if you have trustworthy attorneys. The big advantage is that your family will be able to handle your finances in the event that illness or accident means you no longer have the mental capacity to manage them yourself. 

The only way they would be able to do so otherwise is by applying to the courts for deputyship which is expensive and very long winded. How old are your grand children?

dreaming

I attended a " planning for retirement" session many years ago and the person who ran it told a personal story. His wife's parent's (only in their 60's) were involved in a car crash. Sadly the father was killed outright and his wife survived but with serious brain injury. They had been quite traditional in that the husband dealt with all the financial details and his wife didn't even have her own bank account. Neither had made LPA's but had made wills. So the wife had inherited everything (house, cash etc.), but was now too ill to access anything, so the daughter had to apply to the courts to get access to cash etc. in order to do anything to the house, and eventually to help pay for her mother's care. The LPA process took over 18 months and in the meantime the daughter and her husband (the course convenor) had to use their own cash. This really stuck with me but to be honest I kept putting of drawing up LPA's but after a couple of years of health problems myself, I have now started the process to try to ease any future burden for my daughter - who will be my attorney but at least not have to worry about the financial side (although I am drawing up health LPA as well). So it's not for my benefit but for hers. Please consider doing this for your loved ones.

in_my_wellies

I helped my mum do them both online. When she had developed Alzheimer's I was able to take the Finance one to the bank where they took a copy. I was then issued with a bank card for her bank and able to set up online banking. Worth its weight in gold just for that.
The bank was the only company that asked to see it. Some, like energy, just asked for me to confirm I had one over the phone. Same at the doctors and the hospital when she had a stroke. I never needed to show either. 

There was only me. I imagine that if there were several siblings and disagreements (i.e. which care home) then the authorities would have looked at the POA in detail to see mum's wishes. 

RAS

I used the older EPA to manage my mother's finances. In the early stage after she took me to the bank where she talked to staff who knew her and asked them to allow me to help her. They took a copy, explain what they accepted which allowed me to write cheques, adjust SOs and DDs, set up new accounts for things like insurance. She had to sign investment documents.

We later had to register the EPA because she lacked capacity. But whilst that was being registered, I could still pay utilities, pay gardeners and window cleaners etc, and pay the care home fees. Without it we would have had to rely on Social Services to choose the home and pay in the interim.