POA how easy / difficult is it to do yourself?

[LoafofSellotape]

Anyone done it themselves? Mum is in a rehab and will go into a home when discharged. I've contacted 3 solicitors to do it and they've refused to do it as they're too busy to visit the rehab and said they'll only do it when she's back home - which she's not going to be 🙄

Age UK suggested printing it off and doing it ourselves but keeping hearing it's hard to do, something about signing in correct order ?

Anyone got any advice please?

It’s very simple and much cheaper to do it yourself. Age Concern will also come
out and help you complete it. Just check and double check before sending it off. I’d recommend the jointly and severally option to keep things easier but obviously read carefully and make sure that works for your family.

You don’t need a solicitor. Your DM needs to have capacity when signing the document and someone who can testify that DM is signing under free will (friend/neighbour who knows them well and for a certain period of time) Getting them signed in the right order is the hardest bit.

If low income can get assistance for cost of registering

Fir finance one we got it to be usable straight away rather than when capacity gone, so can manage finances easier that way

If more than one attorney need to decide whether to act jointly or jointly and severally (ie can make individual decision or always have to act jointly)

Do you still have one of those local books-remember the things we used before everything was online? Our area still has a delivery and they are very good for things associated with older people (no offence/ageism intended-I know some old people are more tech savvy than our kids!) Or a county carer's handbook?
I found a man in those that did them cheap. It is just easier than doing it yourself, and for me, the cost was worth it, it was like one shift at work and would have taken me longer.

Lots of good advice here. We used a solicitor but there were many reasons for that and when I do mine I will do it myself.

One thing the solicitor added was a statement for if any assets were held in investments rather than just house and savings acounts - our Dad only had a small stock and shares ISA but the wording was added so that funds could be managed by LPAs in case we wanted to switch funds or anything instead of just cashing in.

All too soon, I’m applying for probate which is also a faff and there’s printing and posting for that too but the LPAs were useful experience for both probate and my own planning.

Very straightforward. I did the forms for my dm and then you pay for them to be registered: I did both the finance and health form and it was £80 each for registration. This was about 10 years ago.

Good info here.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/power-of-attorney/

Thanks all for the info 😊

In England you absolutely can do it yourself and the website has clear instructions. You need one trusted party (not a relative) who has to explain to the donor what they are signing and I think who confirms that the donor is acting of their own free will. Did my Mum's several years ago now.

My tips. Make sure everybody signs in black pen as specified in the instructions, yes to ticking the box to allow the financial one to be used immediately and allow the attorneys to be able to act jointly and severally, otherwise they all have to agree about everything and if one predeceases the person giving the power of attorney, the whole thing is useless and will need to be redone, which may not be possible.

I've just done mine via the .gov website. IIRC the person (witness?) who is confirming you are of sound mind needs to sign first.
The attorneys sign after that.

IIRC there can be a maximum of 6 weeks between the witness signature and the attorneys. I started mine at the end of March, got it all signed in order, posted mid April, got the draft letters back at the start of June and the final paperwork last week.

Dh and I did ours during the first Covid lockdown.

It’s easy enough, only you do need to read the instructions very carefully as regards signing and dating,

I certainly wouldn’t pay a solicitor to do it! Just take your time and make sure you follow the instructions.

Plus, you can add your own wishes to the Health and Welfare section. We added a paragraph to state what we would not want as regards ‘striving to keep alive’ if we were no longer able to state our own wishes.

It's very easy to do yourself. I have done them for me and for my parents. I did contact them though to ask to send the forms out as there are a huge amount to print out otherwise.

You need to do them in the correct order. They come with all details as to what order to do them. Read everything through a few times to make sure that you understand. Make sure the dates match up to the correct order too.

I’d add that I’m a bit further down the line (activating a LPoA that was set up about 10 years ago) and when I called the helpline the guy answered quickly and was very helpful.

I did want to do this online as other friends had done but my mother refused to do it unless we were at a solicitors…
They stored the originals in their vaults & I got fully authorised copies of both the Finance & Health LPAs to send all over the place as required. We also did her will which was also put in the vaults.
It was costly, even back in 2015, but it all ran extremely smoothly, my Mum was happy with it all & it was worth every penny!

It’s not hard, just tedious and detailed and yes, you do have to sign in the correct order, and line up witnesses. Ours was made more painful by the fact that we were doing it (for my parents) during Covid, everything had to be done by post, and the Office of the Public Guardian was drowning in paper and they were all working from home, so lacked the support to resolve simple queries quickly, and bounced things to the long queue for their legal advisors far too readily.

so it was slow but it saved us thousands in legal fees. It should be a quicker process now.

If you Mum is still able to make decisions you can also copy the poa & certify as a true copy once its been registered,
There is certain wording that needs to be written on each page of he copy and then signed. To make things easier you can buy stamps from Amazon to save you having to write on all the pages.

@seanbeanmarryme if DM is not able to make decisions she can't sign the POA

I don't really understand what your saying about copying it. Yes, she is capable or she wouldn't be able to sign the POA.

@LoafofSellotape I think what that PP was referring to is making 'certified copies'. You never want to let the original POA out of your hands, so when you need to send it to various institutions you need to send a certified copy.

If the POA is done by a solicitor, the solicitor keeps the original and gives you certified copies when you ask, at a cost of about £25 per copy. He photocopies the original and stamps every page and signs the stamp. With no solicitor, you will need to check who can do this (PP seems to say your mum can do it herself, I have no experience of that as my mum had a solicitor).

Nowadays it's becoming more common to send a copy online rather than a paper copy in the post, but some places will still want a paper copy. In theory they return this copy to you. In practice, not always.

DH and I need to do this for ourselves. The attorneys will be each other plus one of our nieces, (his niece for him, my niece for me) who do not live anywhere near us. Do they need to sign, and do we need to have them in the same room at the same time as us and the witness who knows us?

I along with my siblings am attorney for our mum, and I can remember signing when I went to visit her one time, but I don’t think it was witnessed.

Very straightforward. Just take your time and read through it all carefully.

The attorneys will be each other plus one of our nieces, (his niece for him, my niece for me) who do not live anywhere near us. Do they need to sign, and do we need to have them in the same room at the same time as us and the witness who knows us?

They need to sign and date, and their signatures need to be witnessed. Their witnesses can be a friend, neighbour, colleague, whoever they can get hold of at the time.

It's important that the signatures are done and dated in the correct order, but you don't all need to be together.

When we did our mum's, as each person signed they posted the forms on to the next person, until eventually they came back to the person who had started the process, to send off to the OPG.

Just do it online and print it off. So much easier.

@LoafofSellotape Sorry for not explaining clearly, @catofglory has done a better job. Your Mum will need to sign any copies to confirm they are a true copy whilst she still has capacity. I copied my parents originals as soon as they had been registered & then had copies I could send in the post when needed in the future.
The government website is really useful. www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/certify

Thank you 😊