Power of Attorney, it's making my head hurt

madlyn

My Sister and I are about to set up a POA for our father, we were hoping to do it ourselves, but I'm really not sure I can having looked at the form.

Signing the forms would be our father, my sister and I, then a certificate provider and a witness.

Does this mean we need two different people to sign? I'm finding it very overwhelming.

RAS

Assuming England and Wales, the certificate provider can be a witness, but please check if that is to your signatures or the donors.

tacpot12

It is very confusing if you don't have quite enough people. If you have an independent withness AND a certificate provider it get easier.

If you want to do it with just one person, you can, but that person has to witness every signature and sign as the certificate provider, so it requires a lot writing on their part. You can minimse the writing on their part, by having each attorney withness each other's signature.

It is also easiest if you all sign on the same day. If you sign of different day, it get much harder still as there is a correct order that the pages have to be signed in. Do it all on the same day and this problem goes away.

madlyn

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82028044#Comment_82028044

So, I can sign as a witness to my sister and vice versa? the certificate provider then signs as a witness to all 3 of us signing?

Flugelhorn

I think you only need one witness - I did this with 3 people in the room : the donor - the attorney and the witness / certificate provider

Ms_Chocaholic

Get everyone to sign together (or sign it with the same date) as it needs to be signed in a certain order and if it isn't then it will be returned to you.

Also if your dad is having two attorneys I think it's always best that you choose the "jointly and severally" option as if one of the attorneys becomes incapacitated in the future either thru illness or death then the POA will fail.

elsien

Also a reminder that the certificate provider is not there to give a token signature.

They are confirming that your Father understands what a power of attorney is, that he wants to make one (because regardless about what anyone else thinks, he has the right to say no even if you think that’s a terrible decision ) and that he wants you and your sister to act for him rather than someone else. So they need the chance to talk to him in private before they are asked to sign/witness anything.

ETA – not in the slightest saying that you are putting pressure on him but it is something that people do sometimes overlook the responsibility of.
And it took my mother 18 months from a an agreement that a power of attorney was a good idea in principle to finally letting me support her to make one.

Once you’ve got your head round the logistics though, it is pretty straightforwards.

GrubbyGirl_2

Your witnesses are simply witnessing that it's you signing not that they know you. I got my next door neighbour to witness mine