Unable to charge for my time for an LPA

[whyisnothingsimple]

I have a LPA for my brother who has vascular dementia. We have never been close and had little contact until he became ill. His financial affairs were very complicated and I have probably spent over 1000 hours trying to sort it all out. It is now much better but I still have to spend several hours a month updating his financial situation. I retired 6 months early as I was struggling to sort his money and house out whilst having a full time job plus a life. He never, ever lifted a finger to help me. If i was not prepared, reluctantly, to do all his life admin, it would fall to a solicitor who would be able to charge a fee per hour. As his attorney, it is assumed that family and friends will do it for love. I do love my brother because he is my brother but I have just spent another 2 hours on the phone sorting an issue out and this has now been going on for over 3 years. I suppose I just want to vent!!!!

Why would you not engage a solicitor? It will be paid out of his money. If there isn't a replacement attorney named then this is the solution.

Well get the solicitor to do it and charge for it. If you gave up a job for this you’re insane.

I was nearing retirement any way plus getting a solicitor to sort it all out would have cost many thousands of pounds meaning that the state would have had to pick up the care home fees much earlier - by me doing it he can stay where he is for longer which is better for him.

There are other attorneys - my children who both have busy lives and families - I would not wish this on them.

Well then youre making the choice - it’s not other people’s expectations it’s your choice. If you don’t want to do it then make another choice and don’t do it.

Yes I made the choice out of loyalty as he is my brother but never realised how time consuming it would be

So you can change your mind and let a solicitor do it. Your reasons for not doing are noble, but don't stack up with the reality of you doing a lot of thankless toil for someone you resent. If you weren't having to do it, you'd be able to just be his sister again. Unless the feeling of duty/virtue is payment enough, don't do it. Your DC won't either, and the state will pick up the bill when that system kicks in, that's not on you to save them the money at your own detriment. It's not your beloved parent or partner and you know he'd never be doing any of this for you.

Thank you for your response - I am finding it hard to balance loyalty and what is best for me. Unfortunately the state may not pick up the bill and might move him to another (cheaper) care home which I have been told would lead to a further decline in his health. At £7300 per month, it is a pretty heavy bill but he is able to self finance for some time to come.

I was LPA for my mother for many years (she had dementia, she died recently). I resented the time I had to give to it but there were no other relatives so I did it. I could have handed it over to a solicitor but I chose not to, like you have. You've made the choice so you just have to let it go.

£7300 is a very hefty monthly care bill. My mother was self funded but she was paying less than £4500 for an excellent care home (south east).

I was LPA for my mother and father. I never thought to try and charge for it. Do it or don't. 🤷‍♀️

Huge sympathies. I did this over several decades with my elderly parents alongside keeping a stressful professional job going.

I would estimate similar amounts of time. My emotional and physical health is now completely broken down and I will need to take medical retirement shortly . Held it together until probate was done and then basically collapsed.

The processes themselves don't require a professional, but you do need to have paperwork in order at all times. Then it's a matter of chasing and book keeping so you just put one foot in front of another until you realise you're over the cliff.

Work out your hourly rate and start paying yourself from his account. That’s perfectly acceptable. Often POA will claim expenses for petrol, their time, any costs incurred.

No you can’t - you can claim for petrol if you are solely going to sort out property etc (in my case iit was 2 hours each way) and anything you buy for the person (in my case endless socks and underwear which seem to go missing) but nothing for you time

Thank you- I’m so sorry you have gone through this - unless you’ve been in this position, it’s hard to understand what is involved. Today I have received 11 letters regarding his situation which will need sorting out - you can do some stuff online as an LPA but others need a phone call which can sometimes take an hour to get through- think HMRC and DWP plus I’ve just moved home so all the admin is doubled.

I can't believe it was over 1000 hours. That's 7 hours a, day 5 days a week for 28 weeks.

Yes that’s right - due to his mental health, he had money spread over 11 banks with a total of 48 accounts, savings, ISA, shares etc. unfortunately his paranoia meant it was a massive mess.

I had similar @whyisnothingsimple .

Horrific. And as you say many things cannot be sorted by email or 'chat' and therefore need a call. Which can easily take an hour even to get through.

Then you reach some six year old who has no clue what you're talking about or a jobsworth reading from a script and so it goes on and on and on.

Solidarity.

@Moveoverdarlin of course you can't pay yourself! That's really bad and dangerous advice.

It's made very clear. Fuel, stationery, whatever personal items they need, small gifts to family on birthdays ( including to oneself) as long as in line with what was previously given - pre dementia in my case.

But oh no, not your time.

There’s no point as she’s the attorney and has to do everything. Solicitors would still have to ask her to sign stuff etc.

OP, of course you can’t charge for your time. You can only charge if you’re a professional attorney.

This is my area of work.

You can of course recoup expenses on his behalf. You CANNOT charge for your time.

You can refuse to be attorney. Then a deputy would have to appointed and this is expensive and time consuming.

Google continuing Healthcare and age UK. Dementia patients shouldn't be paying for their care

Can you close down his accounts and just have everything transferred to one account, his only expenditure would be ongoing carehome fees and associated personal costs.

They shouldn't but they do, I'd ask for an updated care needs assessment and chc checklist., with his mental illness was he ever on a section 3 which entitles him to free aftercarel

Because there are very significant risks involved in having large sums of money in one institution.

There is a limit on the amount of deposits covered per institution ( including subsidiaries) covered by the deposit protection scheme if the bank goes bust.

There is a time limited exemption to this for proceeds from house sales.

It's generally possible to rationalise things a bit but it still leaves an almighty headache.

That was for @MissMoneyFairy