This is going to be quite long as there is a lot of background information and I don't want to drip feed -so I will apologise now!
Some years ago my mum had a very serious stroke and for a long time it was touch and go. Anyway she has survived but is now paralysed from the chest down and has never regained any speech or reliable means of communication. She is in a specialist home requiring 24/7 care. Occasionally when she has a visitor she smiles at them but mostly she doesn't and is just vacant. Since her stroke we have never been able to ascertain if she even recognises us as her family anymore - it's all very sad but it is what it is.
My mum and dad have their own bank accounts which their state pensions are paid into and a joint account which my dad's not inconsiderable private pension is paid into, my dad also has an occasional income from self-employment which also goes into their joint account.
They are not massively wealthy but have always been and still remain more than comfortable financially.
When my mum first had the stroke my dad saw a solicitor about how to manage finances at the time mum was in a coma and he was advised that power of attorney wasn't possible as she would not have capacity to agree.
Since then my dad has paid for anything my mum has needed out of their joint account (except for her care home fees which are state funded given her condition) so has only used his own finances. He pays for her to have someone come and do her hair twice a week; she has a manicure twice a month; he pays for all her toiletry needs such as deodorant, shower gel, toothpaste, hairspray, moisturiser etc..; all her clothing plus luxuries that she always liked to have such as nice perfume and pretty accessories for her room. She is as well looked after as she can possibly be given her circumstances. He always likes her to look nice and she is visited every day by a member of the family on a rota so we all know he is as good as his word - she's always immaculate and the room she lives in is lovely.
My dad recently went to see a solicitor about adding power of attorney to his own will for myself and my brother should anything happen to him as it's worried him on and off for the past few years. He also changed his will at the same time to leave the house (which is only in his name) and all his assets to be split equally between myself, my brother and my aunt as my mum is secure where she is for the rest of her life now and will not need the benefit. I must say that it's taken my dad a long time to come to the realisation that mum is never ever going to get any better as he held out hope that she would for years and he did not come to this decision lightly.
The solicitor (a different one to the first) was more than a bit concerned that my dad has no legal rights to make any decisions financially or otherwise regarding mum.
My dad has no access to my mum's bank account and her pension is still paid in every month so she has a fair amount sitting there now. Every penny he's spent on her since her stroke has come from his own funds although the account he uses is in joint names.
This second solicitor has suggested my dad apply to The Court of Protection to become mum's deputy and be able to access her money and use this for her needs. However - and this is the crux of my question here - the solicitor said that my dad would need to pay an application fee and then an annual fee to the court plus an annual bond to safeguard against maladministration of mum's affairs.
Although my dad has discovered that he'd need to pay between £400 and £900 for the application fee plus an annual fee of £320 for the supervision fee (which he's more than happy to do) he remains unable to work out how much the bond would cost.
He phoned the court of protection and was told that the bond depends upon the size of the assets and also is not refundable upon mum's death or his death which has really confused him and me as our understanding of a bond is that it works as a form of deposit which would cover compensation if my dad didn't act in mum's best interests although so far he's done no such thing.
Therefore he could clearly stand to lose a lot of money in the future through this as we have no idea what level this bond could be set at. Also if anything happened to my dad then my brother and I would then need to go through the whole process of application again.
My mum has no ongoing health problems so there is no reason why she shouldn't live another 20 or so years in her current state even though at present she just exists rather than having a meaningful life.
Does anyone know how much these bonds are and if there are any scales of charges? Also are they truly non-refundable because that seems rather unfair to the family paying them if there is no fraudulent activity.
The alternative seems to be that dad continues as he is doing with him paying for everything she needs and then leaving my brother and I with the problem of sorting mum's affairs out if he goes before she does. This is something he's quite uncomfortable with as it just passes the problem on rather than solving it.
Can anyone help or advise at all ?
Thank you if you made it to the end of my mammoth post!