LPA advice please

[CaptBirdsEar]

I have a registered LPA - what I want is to get a bank card from my bank for my son (he is my named person) to use to access my account if I become incapacitated. What do I do to get a card please.

What have you tried already? have you asked the bank? Would adding him to a joint account work?

Find out if your bank offers something similar, regardless of LPA. Santander does.

You say it's for him to use if you become incapacitated - does that mean you want him to have a card now but not use it at all? Why can't he just apply to your bank with the LPA in the event of your incapcitation? That's what it's for.

I did that on behalf of my mother but only after she was deemed to be unable to manage her own affairs. An adults social worker did an assessment on her. And I used that evidence to take to the bank to show the LPA was now active and I was taking over management of her finances.

This is why I’m asking because I don’t know what to do. What I want is for him to have immediate access to my bank account in the event I had a stroke for example Without delay but not to use yet. I guess I need to phone my bank and ask them.

Maybe ask the bank how long it would take for him to register the LPA and get access. If you were to have a stroke or something similarly sudden you'd be in hospital for a while. What are the reasons your son would need immediate access to your account?

If he were to have a card now, there's nothing to prevent him from using it, apart from his own honesty.

For my late mother, it was things like paying her gas and electric bills. I think the "his honesty" point is valid but if he's not honest then he's not the one to hold an LPA!

I trust my son 100%

I will phone the bank and ask. Thanks

I have LPA for my mum, and we also opened a joint account. Did it online, didnt have to go into the bank.

If you have named your son as attorney and allowed him to act even if you have capacity then he needs to go into your bank and register himself as your attorney on your account. He will then get his own card and login and if you do become incapacitated then it's all set up. My dad still has capacity bug at 93 just can't be bothered with all the online banking so I do it for him as his attorney.
My dad is with Barclays bank. Took one visit to set up.
In England the poas are online so the attorney generates a code to give to the bank and they can see the documents.

Poor advice as when someone passes away, the contents of the joint account goes to the other person named on it.

@CaptBirdsEaryou need to contact your bank, NatWest and Barclays allow you to register an LPA online but there’s a little less wiggle room that way.

Give them a call and explain what you want to them. They’ll ask for a certified copy of the LPA and your son’s certified ID. Be aware it’s a lengthy process.

Has it been registered with the OPG? If so he can present it to the bank and register for access to the account.

Oh, OP - it also depends whether you elected for it to be used right away or only when you lose capacity.

I have this for my parents. If he banks with your bank he can ask online. If not, he has to go in - make appointment- prove identify, show LPA/Online code and that's it! He needs to do ut not you. Has he registered it online?

Again me and my mum have a joint account- generally has about 2-5k in it to tide us over until LPA gets registered.... (It's a long standing joint account from my university days when she wanted one for rent so she could see the balance- so she could ensure that I wasn't homeless and didn't let me have a card then)....

Lloyds took 5 days from me going into the branch with my ID and the LPA (original - they made a copy which saved me a certification fee) to getting cards and both online and telephone banking access. (Lloyds do a 'trusted person' card which allows the card holder to spend but not have visual access to the accounts - it has to be set up whilst the account holder has capacity.)

It wasn't offered as advice, just an option. As i am the only beneficiary, and my mum is a widow, the money would come to me anyway... it works for us.

Would he genuinely need a bank card for anything if you were incapacitated? I manage finances for my parents who both have dementia and deal with everything through online banking. Even stuff like the window cleaner who dad used to pay in cash - I contacted him and he just messages me when he’s done the windows and I pay him.

Santander were quick to set up online banking when I needed it. Quicker if I recall than some other banks but most were within a week to ten days.