Lasting Power of Attorney bank registration

[OohYouLuckyDuck]

A relative has named me on their LPA document. It’s gone through and been registered. The relative may well not need it to be used by me for 10 or more years (age 80), if at all.

The relative now wants me to go to branches of banks they hold accounts with to get the LPA registered with each bank.

Do I really need to do this now, or can I wait until the LPA is needed in the future and do it then? I am named on the LPA of other relatives and thought action only needed to be taken if they become unable to manage their financial affairs for themselves.

You can do it over the internet using internet banking. Have a look on the website of each bank. It does actually take a week or three to activate PoA, so your relative is wise.

Thank you. I’m just thinking it be unnecessary to action it right now - the banks could all change their systems in the next 10 or 20 years, relative might keep all their faculties until they die, relative could change banks.

Please just do it when you have a spare hour. I am going through this with my dad as it is now a necessity. After getting the POA registered with the government, which took over six months, I am now going through the bank stage. It is so bureaucratic and time consuming.

luckily I have some funds of my own ( which I am using while all the paperwork is sorted)but without my support, dads bill would go unpaid and his life would be very frugal.

It’s not just mental capacity which is important. In fact the newer POA can be used while the person still has mental capacity because physical capacity is often lacking.

Dad has funds in building societies with no internet facility. Without me registering with them he would have to go in person to access funds. He isn’t able too.

Bank procedure changes won’t impact as they have to have legacy arrangements to reflect older agreements. You could talk to your relative about staying with the same banks for ease?

it really is a ball ache. I do sympathise.

however I wish I had done it earlier when there weren’t also a multiplicity of care and other needs to handle at the same time.

good luck

Thank you for that information. You’ve convinced me. I’ll get the registration with the individual banks done now.

Sorry that you’re going through such a difficult process with your dad.

I've recently done this for my parents. And I'm both banks they asked if they were of sound mind. So I'd do it now rather than wait.

Thank you that’s useful. I’m now wondering if DH and I need to register with each other’s banks now. We have LPAs in place just in case, but don’t envisage needing them.

Definitely do it now, the financial LPA kicks in immediately, not once they lose capacity . It may vary between banks, HSBC just took a copy of the LPA but with Halifax I had to go in for an appointment with my mum.

Nobody does envisage a POA until the need arises, at least you’ve done yours, so many people get caught out then it’s too late.

It sounds absolutely brutal and callous but having experienced both parents having dementia, and how complicated my life became as a result, the more banking etc that can be consolidated before a person loses capacity, the better.

It's the health one that only kicks in when they lose capacity, the financial one depends on what the donor has specified.

So you need to be a bit careful here. With the financial POA, if your relative has ticked the "only when I lose capacity" box rather than "takes effect immediately" box, the bank may assume that he/she has lost capacity and block his/her access to the account (but will give you access). Santander did this when I registered the POA for my mum and it was a total PITA to get it reversed (as mum needed a working debit card).

Depending on the option selected in the finances LPA document, it is possible that it can be used whilst the donor still has capacity with their consent. Bank may require additional info (confirmation as to how power is being exercised I.e. with consent or donor has lost capacity) but if you are being asked to do it, then just get it registered with the bank so you get as much out of the document as possible. It's been prepared and paid for after all with that intention!

@user9989820190 thankfully dad has had a self certified DN(A)R registered for 24 years.
I think he might have known possible consequences of later life, post that procedure. He was a Dr.
He was v healthy (has been until 2 years ago).
The Financial one was updated a year ago.
it is manageable but the more you do it before you have to the better. The day I applied for the new POA the dad after dad fell.
it’s sad but it happens.If (good forbid) it does the sooner the better. The first stage takes 6 months, then the banks take their time
xx

Thank you everyone. I have agreed with the relative to get the ball rolling with the various banks and building societies this week.

Can anyone advise me on exactly when a relative would be officially deemed to have "lost capacity"?

I have PoA for an elderly relative (for both health and finances). She has dementia and she can function at a basic level from day to day but she is totally unable to manage any financial issues for herself while also being somewhat in denial about the extent to which she is struggling. She has been on a waiting list for a memory assessment for the best part of a year now, and her memory has definitely deteriorated significantly in that time. Do we need a formal diagnosis for the PoA to kick in if she ticked the box to say it would become active only when she lost capacity? I am named on her bank account as a joint account holder in any case, so I can manage day to day payments for her, but there are other issues that need sorting out for her and I'm not really clear yet as to when I will have the authority to act on her behalf. (I can't just ask her if she is happy for me to deal with it because financial stuff stresses her out and she won't discuss it; she also won't remember the conversation 5 mins after we've had it!)

Sorry - I said above that she has dementia because it is very obvious to everyone that this is the case, but she has no formal diagnosis as yet.

Some banks still require an appointment. NatWest took a couple to sort out.

@MrsBennetsPoorNerves Capacity is a bit of a grey area - someone may have capacity to make some decisions and not others and it's pretty common IME in the earlier stages of dementia for it to vary day to day. It's also not really about whether they are able to manage banking (in terms of phoning the bank and passing security or logging onto online banking or doing stuff that many elderly find difficult) but about whether they are able to make a decision when explained to them in simple terms.

A formal diagnosis of dementia doesn't equate to not having capacity.

I requested several times that a financial capacity assessment be done for mum but there was a lot of buck passing between social services and doctors as to who could/would do it. Eventually she was (I dislike the phrase but it's quick and everyone knows what it means) bed blocking and a doctor assessed her, though this was for her capacity to make medical decisions as she was refusing to agree go to a care home and it was clearly unsafe for her to go home. She was assessed as not having capacity to decide. We took that as read that she didn't have financial capacity either, but her bank didn't require this be done. I don't know whether other banks require evidence of the assessment or not.

In your case you probably need to find the copy of the LPA or request one from the OPG and hopefully she will have ticked the box that says immediate effect, if so you probably just need to ask if she's happy for you to help her with her banking and if so register it with the bank. If she's ticked the other one you probably need to get in touch with the bank's power of attorney department for advice. They should be able to tell you what would happen if you register it (i.e. whether they'll block her access to the account/card etc), but obviously until that's done they won't discuss specifics of the account.

There is another option: third party access, but if she's refusing to discuss anything financial with you that's probably a non starter and if she's ticked the "immediate effect" box on the LPA it isn't necessary anyway unless someone who isn't an attorney needs access to the account.

Thank you, that's all very helpful @user9989820190. I have the PoA letter so will check which box she ticked.

I know that, on one level, she is happy for me to help her with her finances because she agreed over a year ago to add me to her main bank account. The issue is that she shuts down any conversations about any other financial issues because it stresses her out to talk about it. Essentially, she'll say that she is managing everything and there is nothing that needs to be done, even though she is not actually managing anything. A bit like she used to say that she could manage to do her own food shopping but her neighbours said not!!

I'll just have to hope that she ticked the "immediate effect" box on the form... though there is a part of me that is actually quite anxious about lifting the lid on all of the other things that she has been ignoring to date!

I just don’t see point of this until the person actually needs help or loose mental capacity

i change my banks regularly. As advised to by people like MSE. my current account is changed every 2 years to take advantage of incentives. And my savviest accounts, currently , get revived every month becuase of interest rate changes- I play hunt the internet rates to get best deals.
my 2 DS are my attorneys , I’m sixty, and it’s a complete utter waste of time writing to banks to do this .they’d be literally writing a new letter or going on line every single month currenly
sure, if person is showing signs of deteriorating or is beginning to find things difficult and thinking about activating it to help out, then yes. But if they’re still able to manage their affairs then it is an utter waste of time and effort, or if it’s not, the person is missing out on making the most of their money by bank and savings switches,