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Elderly parents
Original poster

Power of Attorney (financial) - what are the benefits?

55 replies

FruHagen · 18/03/2021 21:28

So I am struggling to explain with real world examples to my elderly Mother (who we think has early stage dementia) the reason for her giving Power of Attorney (financial) to me and my 3 siblings.

I just can't come up with any compelling examples for her to understand what it is and why it's necessary. I have told her it means that people she loves and trusts can speak to financial institutions like the bank etc on her behalf but she just says "why the hell would I want you to talk to the bank for me. I'm not ga-ga"

Can you lovely people enlighten my poor imagination with some examples of why this matters?

OP posts:
Umbivalent · 18/03/2021 21:43

Yes, the more I think about this, the more it makes sense. Every one of you should do an LPA.

Also, get her to do the non-financial LPA as well.

tilder · 18/03/2021 21:43

@eurochick

Tell her it's in case she goes "ga ga"!
This. By the time you need it, it's too late to sort it.

We sorted it with my parents. Hope we never need it.

Umbivalent · 18/03/2021 21:42

Hmm. Tricky one. As, obviously, any talk of care homes etc will garner the same response.

You could go down the "It will be a weight off our minds, we've all done them too* road. In fact, if you did all do them, you could just tell her you were including her and it wouldn't all be about her, but would be a thing you were all just doing. Because of Covid, or something Wink

eurochick · 18/03/2021 21:40

Tell her it's in case she goes "ga ga"!

parietal · 18/03/2021 21:39

If she had a fall and was in hospital, PoA means that one of her children could pay the gas bill / sort out a repair to the roof etc.

If a child has financial PoA, the child can organise & choose a care home. If not, the council might choose and choose the cheapest. Again, this might happen after a short hospital stay because often it is not possible to do rehab at home.

Are there any example in her circle of friends / relatives who had a hospital stay or nursing home care? Can you point out that they had PoA? Or find anyone else of her generation who has it.

My parents who are fit & well have given us (all 3 children) full PoA as an insurance against anything going wrong. I hope we won't need to use it for years, but it is good to have it in place.

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