PoA admin -hassle registering it at financial institutions

[BeaTwix]

I've got Scottish PoA. So no nice code for me to give financial institutions.

I need to send them an original or a certified copy - some will accept a copy certified by any professional (thanks colleagues!) others only want them done by solicitors (£££).

I also paid for some "official" copies from the office of the public guardian-Scotland (OPG-S) which say clearly on the front "this document does not require to be certified" yet the financial institutions are still rejecting them as photocopies. Because despite being "official" that is what they look like. OPG-S stopped putting nice seals and bindings on docs in 2023.

Doesn't help that the oldie has accounts with over 27 organisations. I'm now down to mostly the ones with <£1000 in them, or that I can't walk into.

I've been trying to sort this out since September. It takes so long and I've spent a fortune on recorded delivery letters and the final insult yesterday was when I tried to use my hard fought card for the oldies bank account the bank declined it despite their being money in the account.

Trying to get this card involved one visit to branch with a tonne of documents, three phonecalls and two trips to Scotland to retrieve it as they wouldn't post it to my home address and the first time I went up the oldie assured me me that my debit card had arrived (I asked them to open it) but it turned out only to be some kind of plastic card with my online banking details on it - not chip and pin, no mastercard symbol. Slightly worrying too that oldie couldn't recognise what a debit card looked like.

I have no idea why the transaction was declined - 30 minutes previously I'd paid in around £500 of re-issued dividend/ rights issue cheques using the same card. So now the oldie owes me money again and after how shirty they got the last time I explained I was taking money to pay myself back I vowed I wasn't going to get into this position again.

Also a word of warning - if you don't pay in your dividend cheques they charge admin fees so the oldie lost a tonne of money as the entire value of some of her small shareholding dividends was eaten up in the re-issuing fees. Oldie should have signed up for DRIP or automatic payment into her bank account years ago but that would have meant them making a sensible decision/ following a system which has never been their strong point even before the current cognitive decline.

I've also finally got PoA registered and online banking set up for their Nationwide accounts (three visits to a branch, an executive level complaint, one new card reader and one phone call) and despite repeatedly saying in branch that I needed to manage the accounts online it transpires that I can't actually transact on any of the accounts. I can only check the balance. Sorting this out is yet another task.

Honestly burnout is very real.

Fidelity.

I went into their London contact centre to present the documents - PoA, my passport, my driving licence. Copies were taken and verified by the staff for submission to their central office.

they have now written to me saying they need to verify my DOB and I need to send them….my passport or driving licence.

Can anyone actually get this process right.

NSANDI have upheld my complaint and conceded that the documents
I sent them was legit.

RBS

Won't let me reduce the huge unused overdraft (2.5K) on the oldies account to a more manageable £250 as they don't allow attorney's to borrow money!

Meanwhile the oldie is swanning around with fluctuating capacity and a debit card which allows her to spend at will.

I was just going to reduce the overdraft and accept the potential loss of her current account balance but this changes things somewhat...

And it continues. Went into Barclays branch today. Bloke very helpful but not all information on their website so there was stuff I could have done at home but hadn't. Then the bombshell Barclays register Scottish PoA under Scottish/ Foreign/ Unrecognised category.

There is no place on their system to record that it is a joint and several PoA so because there are two people named on the PoA they have treated it as a joint PoA with all the limitations that brings (no online/ phone banking/ dual signatures etc).

The system for English PoAs (he showed me) has distinct questions about this so joint and several can be established. Hopefully the PoA team will sort it out when it gets to them.

They also don't have online access for attorney's to credit card accounts (my oldie still uses her for online shopping and her memory is so poor that I'm worried that getting her to change her routine will cause endless issues).

Sigh Sigh Sigh Sigh.

Aaagh...that's why I can't get my dad's Barclay card to open online! Fortunately he has stopped using it and I saw the paper bill when I was last down and just one transaction on it.

So annoying re Scottish poa. I do recall the lady at Barclays being relieved it was an English one as the Scottish ones had to be registered differently as you have found out!

The system is so antiquated

Can I add that Santander were massively helpful in registering the English LPA online for DM’s current account with just an uploaded scan of the original document. They provided the two joint and several attorneys with bank cards in just a few days.

I feel your pain, particularly with Fidelity.

My situation is complicated by the assets being in USA, my relative in an EU country now and me being in England. We have a PoA prepared in relative's country of residence and properly apostilled. Fidelity won't accept it. They want their own PoA form, notarised by a US notary. My relative is bedridden and visually impaired so no chance of travelling to US for this. Online notary attempted, but their verification software can't deal with non-US citizens. We are currently at an impasse.

@Pirrip sympathies.

@Musicaltheatremum I've decided to open a barclaycard online account as my oldie next time I'm up and have her card handy. My lawyer brother pointed out that the PoA actually lets me do and I'll only be doing it to check what she is spending money on .

Just about to start a new thread on todays bombshell... the double glazing contract...

And it continues. I have PoA registered with the Skipton. Oldie has two accounts with them - an isa and instant access saver.

Oldies husband died last year and he had a skipton ISA so Oldie gets an inherited ISA (can't remember the proper name). However, in order to open this account they need to see the PoA again. Honestly, you couldn't make it up.

I also complained to the NHS about shitty communication around her discharge in December. My complaint letter was explicit about the fact I hold PoA and that she doesn't have capacity. Response letter - can't reply as need authorisation from oldie. ARRGGGGGGHHHHHH

I was just thinking about this thread yesterday. DF was talking about opening a new ISA using an account I didn’t even know existed <sigh>. I gently suggested that he choose an ISA from Bank A that I already have online POA set up. He looked kind of surprised, but then agreed.
I don’t use the POA at the minute as thankfully they are both just about capable of managing their financial affairs, but it makes any future matters easier if it’s all in one place. Frankly at this point they have enough money without worrying about the likely 0.2-0.5% difference in interest rates.

There I was feeling relieved I would have a couple more years without worrying about the outlaws, but my MiL was recently in hospital and it soon became apparent that FiL has mislaid a fair few marbles since we last saw them for any length of time.

It took the pair of them about 7 years to lodge the PoA’s we’d signed (I’m surprised that they were acceptable so late in the day TBH), so I don’t have high hopes that their affairs will be straightforward.

Deep breath….

I realise it may be more difficult with Scottish POA, I had English.

But I did not have a nice code, as I was doing all this a few years ago.

The only financial institution I ever went into with my POA was the bank which had my mother's current account. They posted a debit card and cheque book to me, and I set up online banking so I could monitor the account and also transfer money to myself when I paid for things for her. And ultimately, also set up payments for her care.

With the other institutions I rang and asked them what they needed, they emailed me details, and I posted certified copies of POA and ID. It is a PITA when you have to do it multiple times.

Re the NHS, do you have health POA as well as finance? Not sure how it works with Scottish POA but with English they are two separate documents. The NHS would either need sight of the health POA, or permission from your oldie.

@catofglory I have a Scottish combined PoA. I have provided copies to this NHS health board previously - they should have uploaded it onto the electronic records system which is what I requested they do. But obviously they haven't. Or they didn't actually read my letter of complaint.

Which is possible as these are the same issues I raised in my previous communication with them. At which point they spent more time clarifying if it was feedback, comment or a complaint than they did actually addressing the substance of the complaint.

I really pity old people who don't have articulate and educated people to look out for them as the financial institutions make this far too complicated in the guise of safeguarding aka delivering a shit expensive service.

Initially I only had the original document. I could have got them certified by a solicitor but they wanted £££ and there was a huge processing backlog at the OPG Scotland which i had to get the MSP involved to sort. I now have certified copies of the PoA provided by the OPG Scotland. However, English financial institutions keeps rejecting them as they don't know what they look like. Or they don't return them. Which as they cost about £25 each is a pain in the ass.

My brother (lawyer) went to a talk about PoA and the OPG herself outlined a horror story involving her trying to use her parents PoA and someone in the bank mansplaining her about how it worked. Honestly. The system is fucked.

I'm dealing with 27 institutions because the oldie is a moron and has an inordinate number of accounts.

Oldie also has an unclaimed private pension (she is now 76) and I've been badgering Aviva to tell me about it since early January. So far I've written once, phoned twice, emailed CEO twice. Still nada. But I do have a letter telling me they've registered the PoA on all the products she holds with them! It's just a shame they can't give me the information i need. At this rate she is going to end up with an annuity right before she pops her clogs.