Overwhelmed & Exhausted By Power of Attorney Responsibilities

[AgitatedGoose]

Does anyone else really struggle with being a POA and the amount of time it takes up. I admit I slept walked into this when I agreed to do this for both my elderly parents. I’ve never had a close relationship with them and had a very difficult childhood. I’m also an only child and there was no one else to take on this burdensome task and I knew the problems it would cause if I’d said no. I really regret this now because of the time it’s taking up. I’m trying to manage a stressful job and I live 3-4 hours away from my parents. My Mum has Alzheimer’s and my step Dad is struggling to manage his bank account and organise repairs for the house. In the last week I’ve had to spend 3 hours registering the POA with the bank and now they’ve emailed me saying part of the document didn’t scan properly so now I’ve got to go back. I could scan the document myself and email it to them but apparently they have to do it. I’ve also spent about an hour sorting out the house insurance.
The worst thing about being a POA is that your expected to do all this work for free. I can only claim nominal expenses such as car parking and stationary. I also do free lance work as well as my contracted job which I’m having to reduce whilst I sort out the POA stuff. Consequently Im losing money which doesn’t seem fair particularly as a professional attorney is allowed to charge for their services.

Of course you may not need to do it all at once. I’ve been managing my father’s finances for 10 years, and there’s still one account that hasn’t had the PoA registered. He’s still getting paper statements, so I can see it’s pottering on nicely with no problems.

You and your today (Weds 21st) had a section on PoA, on the back of Which? research showing 1 out of 3 people have had difficulty dealing with banks and PoAs. They were talking to one lady who was an attorney with her sister, acting jointly and severally. The bank was incapable of dealing with them both. Because sister got in to her branch first, they put her down as the address for correspondence, so all bank cards etc went to her. But they were able to set up the lady interviewed with online access. So despite acting "jointly and severally", all the different bits of having a joint account were divvied up and shared so only one of them could access each bit. And then came the time when they told her she needed to talk to the Fraud dept, but the bank wouldn't recognise her password, only her sisters ...

I didn't hear any more because I was visiting my father. But it may be worth listening to.

You and Yours on Powers of Attorney