power of attorney ,dad with dementia advice

grazzzz

My 90 year old father has been diagnosed 3 years ago with dementia , and is getting worse, my mother died 25 years ago and my father has a partner who is 85 and not very competent at organising things. When first diagnosed my brother and i suggested sorting out power of attorney she was very dismissive and said they had a joint bank account for bills so it wasn't necessary .
 A month or so ago she said maybe it was a good idea and said she had spoken to a solicitor.
 We were happy for it to go ahead however didn't think it would because of his dementia ?
 we have found out today he was taken to the solicitor they agreed to do it on his instruction and the POW has both his partner my brother and myself named also although we haven't signed anything yet,however we were expecting a tri party meaning all 3 have to agree on decisions,but that's not the case, so we could make large money transfers etc without consulting the others.  
 my question is,is that a normal pow and secondly can my dad actually give instructions seeing his been diagnosed 2 years ago .
 My brother and i want complete transparency as we believe his partner could at 85 be coerced in to moving money without our knowledge.
Advice please 

Keep_pedalling

It is normal to have your attorneys act jointly and severally as otherwise the LPA fails if one attorney can no longer act or refuses to do so.

tacpot12

It's certainly possible for someone with dementia to make a Power of Attorney, but they have to have capacity at the time they do so. This means they have to be able to retain information long enough to make the decision that the want to make a Power of Attorney written in the way it is; which means they have to understand what the Attorneys can do.

You can test whether he really understand what power he would giving by talking to him, ideally when his partner isn't present. You should share your concerns about her vulverability with him, and ask if he would consider saying in the PoA that she can't access to his savings or investments. This could be a difficult conversation, so you will need to tread carefully. 

Ultimately if the trustees are to act jointly and serverally, they need to trust each other. If they can't, the only option is to have them act jointly (and not severally). You can appoint reserve attorneys to join the attorneys if one cannot act (e.g. because they have also lost capacity), but it's very cumbersom to have to have two attorneys authorising every bank transaction, and you might llimit yourselves as to which banks can offer this.

elsien

I think it’s also important to note that people can have fluctuating capacity.
A responsible solicitor would have checked but your father knew what he was signing – that is part of their role. 

Sitting your dad down now and trying to get him to tell you what he signed may not work because you may catch him at a bad time. That does not mean the power of attorney is invalid because he only needs to understand at the time, not several weeks later. 

Having all 3 to agree on decisions is actually in most cases a very bad idea. Because if you don’t agree, or one of you can’t be got hold of when a decision needs to be made, one of you becomes ill or loses capacity  themselves it effectively invalidates the LPA as it becomes unworkable. 

So maybe the partner that he lives with is best place to carry out the day to day decisions but agree that bigger decisions have all three of you involved in his best interests.
Has he completed the health and welfare power-of-attorney, or just a finance one?

And bear in mind that this is dad’s wishes so to have a power of attorney going in trying to stop the partner from handling large sums of money may absolutely not be in line with how he wants things to happen. And it is ultimately his decision, not yours. 

Savvy_Sue

Partner - unmarried? Does his will do what he wants it to do? That can't be changed under PofA. Again, he'd need to have capacity at the time of signing the will, even if he didn't retain his memory of doing so, or any understanding of what he'd done.