Wills, solicitor's fees and Power of Attorney

[EscapetothePorch]

We are trying to sort out things for my mother who is in a care home. My father died recently and now the family home is empty whilst we sort things out. We realise that we will probably have to sell this home to pay for Mum's care as we don't think her widow's pension and state pension would cover the costs and my Dad appears to have had no nest-eggs tucked away.

Our solicitor is charging £175 per hour and will take 1.9% of the estate value - just wondered firstly, if this was in-line with current charges?

Two of my siblings are going to have Lasting Power of Attorney - the solicitor has said that they can organise this or that we can. My family seem to feel that it would be better for the solicitor to do this but I am wondering if this is prudent. How difficult is it to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney - is it that complicated? I've had a quick look at the Age Concern site and have heard mention of £300.

I know that I am going to have look more closely into this but thought I would see if anyone on here has been through this and has any advice or thoughts.

Had poa for my mum who went into care home, i felt it best to do it all through a solicitor then it would not come back to bite me lateer if something i had done was wrong. it also saves siblings arguing about it.when my dad dad died recently we agreed a fixed fee with the solicitor that way we new what the charges were going to be. when my mum died after we had to prove to social services that all the monies were spent accordingly by producing all recipts for expenditure. beacause eventually she no longer became self funding because thr nursing home fees were expensive. iwould probably pay for the POA just because its maybe someting else your family have to cope with at the moment and at least you knows its done properly because solicitor done it. as far as the 1.9% fee on the estate in concerned i would phone around and check obviously only you know the value of the estate but we paid about £2000 to ours but it was quite a complicated estate and we were told afterwards that it was lucky we done a fixed charge as if we had paid hourly fees it would have been over double. hope this helps.

Thanks Kittycat68. Interesting what you say about a fixed fee - don't know if this is an option with this firm. Am in a tricky position because it's my older siblings dealing with it all and I don't live nearby. They are doing all the donkey work so don't want to be seen commenting from afar suggesting things when I won't actually have to action any of it IYSWIM?

We've basically stuck with the solicitor who drew up my Mum and Dad's will.

When you say that you had to produce all receipts for expenditure was this to prove what your Mum had left in terms of capital to fund her care home fees? I think we will have to sell the family home and then pay all the costs like solicitor's fees, interment fees for my Dad's ashes etc. and then basically what is left over will go towards her care. Do SOcial services have the power to actually check all this expenditure? Is this money handed over to them or do you keep it and pay them on a weekly basis?

when my mum died they asked for all the recits and expenses from the date my dad died it was to check that we spent the money correctly as initially we paid her home fees from the estate and her share of the house but when that ran out we were no longer self funding and had to rely on the state to pay them they normally do check this because they they want to be sure that nobody fiddle the estate to benefit themself, we had POA,she stopped being self funding when the estate was less than 16,000 but this amount may have changed so you would need to check the current amount. but you must keep ALL records and recipts the expenses you state obviously do come out of the estate, do you ahve a POA for your mum.

We haven't got POA yet but are sorting it out now.

Its a bit late for you EscapetothePorch but there is, I understand, a way people can protect their house having to be sold to pay for care fees which is very straightforward and not very expensive, particularily when you look at how much care fees are.Its something we should all encourage our parents to do so there is something left to inherit, rather than it all going to the Government.