Which savings accounts accept Power of Attorney?

Miss_Poohs

This is very interesting to me as I am currently involved with my dad in setting up a P of A for me to act on his behalf.

My dad is still mentally sound, just very careless and being that my mum died very recently I'm concerned about how he'll cope with his finances.

He recently took £12000 out of a savings account, took it home and hid it - we still haven't found it!!!

I have spoken to both HBOS and Lloyds TSB where both my parents have/had accounts, and they have been very helpful, although the girl in TSB seemed a bit more on the ball.

I was made aware that if any bank holds in excess of £15000 for any one person - it complicate matters on death in that it involves a registration of some sort that may delay matters in tying up the estate.

Can anyone explain to me? Thanks.

Biggles

£12,000? Wow, that is careless! But, while he remains mentally sound, it may be hard to preventing him doing something similar again, unless you retain the cheque book.

With regard to the £15,000 at one bank, I can't help. But I wonder if that could be the level below which probate is not required? But if so, that would refer to the total value of his estate, not to any individual holdings. I'd be interested if you found out more.

PBA

Biggles wrote: »

But I wonder if that could be the level below which probate is not required? But if so, that would refer to the total value of his estate, not to any individual holdings. I'd be interested if you found out more.

If one customer has holdings of over 15k the bank will need probate to get the funds released, even if the total value of the estate isn't large enough to need probate. Depending on the bank, you can get money out to pay funeral and inheritance bills before probate though.

aylesby

The Alliance and Leicester proved the best for us. Their staff knew what the paperwork ment and were based locally. We wanted mum's name on her account as well as her daughter as attorney. A big bonus for us is that the account can be operated online.

Ice_2

well my mums solictor sent mine off to be registered and it didn't cost a penny...but on this subject if you have online banking with the accounts you can take control of the money that way move it to different accounts and open other accounts with it...nothing dishonest mind but you dont need EPOA to go to a cash machine or to put funds into the accounts and if you will need to move money out of the accounts and into other accounts for your mum then do it via online banking they don't know its you doing it...it would solve alot of hassle...sadly my mum lost her marbles before she died (brain tumour) so I had to pay all the bills and do any shopping for her while she was like this which I did online...so simple to set up and do...and it takes the worry away of finding a bundle of unpaid bills once they have gone...as for your dad taking the money out of the bank...£15000and over has to go to probate...so they will have told him to with draw the money buy him a safe to keep it in they are about £30 in boyes it's so that the tax man does get it in inheritence tax...:D

Biggles

Ice wrote: »

well my mums solictor sent mine off to be registered and it didn't cost a penny

To be honest, yes it did (£120 for an EPA, unless it was a very long time ago). But her solicitor obviously picked up the bill, no doubt because he knew he would be charging your mum other fees so probably either aggregated it or took it as a 'loss-leader'.

but on this subject if you have online banking with the accounts you can take control of the money that way move it to different accounts and open other accounts with it...nothing dishonest mind but you dont need EPOA to go to a cash machine or to put funds into the accounts and if you will need to move money out of the accounts and into other accounts for your mum then do it via online banking they don't know its you doing it...it would solve alot of hassle

It's OK if there's only yourself (no siblings to account to, for example) and if you don't get caught. Then it really hits the fan. I'm all for 'no hassle' too but needed to make sure my siblings could see that all was above board.

Ice_2

sloughflint wrote: »

It would solve a lot of hassle yes but it is still wrong because people aren't supposed to give their login details to anyone else.
I did online banking for years assuming I was ok as I was a signatory on an account but found out by chance that POA was necessary for online banking despite this.
I'm sure lots of trusting families do it without problems.
I prefer to do it completely by the book when dealing with someone else's money.

as long as your honest and your mum knows what you are doing I don't see the problem...get the EPOA but still do the online banking that way you have more control over your mums money and not the banks...and at least you know you can keep an eye on it...:)

Ice_2

Biggles wrote: »

To be honest, yes it did (£120 for an EPA, unless it was a very long time ago). But her solicitor obviously picked up the bill, no doubt because he knew he would be charging your mum other fees so probably either aggregated it or took it as a 'loss-leader'.

It's OK if there's only yourself (no siblings to account to, for example) and if you don't get caught. Then it really hits the fan. I'm all for 'no hassle' too but needed to make sure my siblings could see that all was above board.

I was a serving police officer when I looked after my mums affairs as my siblings didn't want the hassle and they couldn't trust each other so it was left to me to sort out...and yes the solicitor did get more money off mum when she wanted to change something in her will or add something to it and he called at the house twice and in the hospital once...so he probably did get his moneys worth at the time...it was always £90 for this and £164.00 for that...wouldn't quite trust then with my money now...:)

Ice_2

sloughflint wrote: »

No, I wasn't aware of having to.
I keep all receipts anyway. What do you ( and others)do by way of detailed accounts then?
In my case, all transactions ( movements between accounts)are reconciled with Microsoft Money with notes.
Withdrawing cash could be a tricky area.

I did any shopping online eg:
tesco's for grocery's
boot's for toiletries
I used the automated telephone service for bills such as:
British gas for gas and electric
Bt went out the bank as a direct debit
as did :
water
coastcall
everything went through the bank really so it showed up on mums statements...
the tesco's and boots reciepts I kept and stapled them to the statement for that month...I kept all her statements with reciepts in a big fillafax so everything was accounted for...I never needed to draw any money out as everything she needed was done online but if you have to...show the bank your POA and ask them to give you a reciept for the money hths...Ice:)

DawnW

My Mum had dementia, and I had to apply to the Public Guardianship Office for 'Receivership', which was quite a complicated process, and quite expensive. The regulations stated that I should keep receipts, accounts etc, but to be honest they never asked to see them, either while she was alive or after she died. Perhaps it would have been more stringent had she been richer - she was just a pensioner who lived in a Council flat and had a few thousand in savings. When she died, I simply had to send a copy of her death certificate to the COP and they dissolved the receivership. By the way OP, she had always banked with Barclays, and they were fine about my setting up new accounts for her (Tax Beater ISA, online savings account etc) - I had to do this really, as she had all her money in a current account paying no interest.
In fact they were very helpful - I am not a Barclays fan, but couldn't fault them on this. They even told me at her small branch that they had tried to get mum to open proper savings accounts before, but she couldn't understand what they were trying to tell her.