Consumer expert Jessica Gorst-Williams explains how to make registering power of attorney with a bank as quick and painless as possible. 

By Jessica Gorst-Williams @ Telegraph

1:51PM BST 02 May 2013

1 Comment

I have lasting power of attorney and need to register it with a bank. I do feel very emotional about it all and find it difficult to think clearly. In order that this is an easy process, which clearly such things often are not, what do I need to do?

Given the often distressing circumstances in which this is being done kindness and forbearance should be the order of the day for bank or building society staff.

Sadly you cannot expect this and need to approach it as a no nonsense chore to be attended to with as little trouble as possible.

Related Articles

• ‘Why won’t the bank recognise my power of attorney?’

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• Power of Attorney: families left in the lurch by the      banks

12 Nov 2012

NEW GUIDELINES

If you live in England and Wales from this  April new guidance for consumers were issued by various bodies under ‘Guidance for people wanting to manage a bank account for someone else’.

Contact the British Bankers Association (BBA)  orderline on 0207 216 8801 and they will send you one, or go online to download at http://www.bba.org.uk/

DO I HAVE TO GO INTO A BRANCH ?

To make the process more seamless this is the best option. However it may be possible to do register a power of attorney with a bank or building society by writing in.

WHAT IF THERE IS MORE THAN ONE ATTORNEY. DO WE NEED TO GO IN TOGETHER ?

Every bank or building society has its quirks but Lloyds Banking Group, which covers a range of banks including Halifax and Lloyds TSB, says the different attorneys can attend different branches of the bank the account is with. They don’t need to go in together.

WHAT PAPERWORK DO I NEED ?

Banks and building societies differ one to another but as a rule of thumb you will need proof of your name and address and evidence that you are entitled to act for the account holder.

This will include the full, original Lasting Power of Attorney document stamped by the Office of the Public Guardian or a certified copy. Then some identification from a range of options ideally with photo identification such as a current passport or a current driving licence of all attorneys to be registered.

Other documents might be pension or benefit letters or your utility bills or council tax bill, a letter from HM Revenue & Customs,

CHECK ON THE PHONE WITH THE PROVIDER WHAT IS NEEDED BEFORE GOING

Make sure you get through to the section of the bank or building society geared up to know about such things. Ordinary staff answering the phone may not.

CHECK THE OPENING HOURS

Also find out the opening hours. Some branches are closing earlier than they used to. Get there in good time to go through the process.

POWER OF ATTORNEY REGISTRATION FORM

The power of attorney registration form or mandate itself will also need to be signed by all the attorney or attorneys if there is more than one. This will be provided by the bank or building society.

IS IT DIFFERENT FOR AN ATTORNEY WHO WANTS TO OPEN AN ACCOUNT ON BEHALF OF A DONOR WHO IS NOT AN EXISTING CUSTOMER ?

Doing this will require extra id to confirm the identity of the donor as well.

HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE FOR THE ARRANGEMENT TO BE PUT IN PLACE ?

Lloyds Banking Group, for example, says it should take seven days after the person comes into the branch, for instance, for the power of attorney to be registered on the relevant accounts.

DEBIT CARD CATCHES FOR THOSE WITH POWER OF ATTORNEY

A financial power of attorney allows the person or person named in it to access the money and financial records of someone else who is probably incapacitated. It should be a level playing field with the same services as the real owner of the money had but it doesn’t always work like that.

It is also the case that a power of attorney may not enable all bank services on the account. One reader wrote in about his wife’s account with Santander. Now the effects of dementia had taken their toll. Santander however only offers card facilities to account owners and doesn’t provide those facilities to power of attorneys. This was highly inconvenient but all I managed to achieve for this reader was a donation of £85s worth of wall art to the care nursing home.

I have pointed out to Santander that to my mind this is discrimination. It does seem to be taking this view on board. I understand it is in the process of looking into how it can change things to make them more user friendly in these circumstances. Meanwhile not being able to use a debit card on a Santander account operated by power of attorney is something to be aware of.

OTHER BANKS MAY PROVIDE DEBIT CARDS

Barclays, for example, does provide debit cards for such power of attorneys but says there may be restrictions where there is more than one attorney. Lloyds Banking Group says it provides cards as if it were dealing with the customer.

ONLINE ACCOUNT PROBLEMS

More banks than used to are allowing power of attorneys to use online banking when they are dealing with an incapacitated person’s financial affairs. Recently, for example, Santander started to allow this which it hadn’t done in the past. However there are restrictions with some providers.

WILL AN OLD STYLE ENDURING POWER OF ATTORNEY DOCUMENT STILL COUNT ?

There are exceptions but usually it will as long as it predates October 2007 when EPAs were replaced with LPAs. It will need to have been signed by then by the person it is on behalf of and the person or people who will act as attorney. It doesn’t need to have been registered with the Office of Public Guardian then but can be later when the need arises.

WHAT IF SOMEONE BECOMES INCAPACITATED AND THERE IS NO POWER OF ATTORNEY ?

Contact the Court of Protection about becoming a personal deputy. This can probably be done by post. See www.gov.uk.

Why a lasting power of attorney is not just for the elderly !

Mental and physical incapacity can hit at any time, which is why charities recommend planning ahead to ease the potential burden on loved ones

“Starting with the end in mind” is one of the recommendations for people considering Life Coaching and when arranging for a will to be written, it’s clearly done with the very end in mind. A morbid thought to some, a huge opportunity to others. There is nothing like thinking about it all being over to force us to consider what we would like to “do, have or be” in between now and then. Many people settle for the life they live, thinking that it is too late to do things any differently. As a Life Coach and Business Coach I would challenge that. We are all able to make changes and get more of what we want, whether from our lives or from our businesses.

As you are at the point in your life where you are considering the end, I would compel you now to think about the bit in between, and recommend that you take some time now to decide how you are going to get the best out of it. I recently heard the importance of time management described as having an awareness that we only have a limited amount of time on the earth, so the point of time management isn’t working harder in a shorter space of time, it is maximising that time, for whichever purpose is right for you. How will you know what that purpose is unless you take time to review it? Even if you have goals you are working towards, are you missing some of the smaller details that could give you greater satisfaction now? The following exercise is designed to get us to stop and take stock of what we are doing with our remaining time (which very few of us can quantify), and consider what else might be worth some effort or attention:

The “101 things I’d like to be, have or do” exercise. This exercise was written by Jack Canfield (author of Chicken Soup for the Soul). The task is to sit down with a note book and list out 101 things that you would like to be, have or do. For example:
“I would like to be better friends with my siblings”
“I would like to do more karate”
“I would like to have time for myself every day”
Do not try to write 101 things down all in one sitting, tackle 30 per day (31 the last time). The reason it is 101, is because we will likely write down the ideas at the forefront of our minds first. Sometimes the more worthwhile and meaningful things to us take a little while longer to come out. Once you’ve done this, you can then have a knock-out tournament between your ideas. So selecting 2 at a time, and picking one over the other. This will take you down to 50. Then repeat this, taking your 50 down to 25. Do this once more and you’ll have a list of about 12. These 12 things are worth paying proper attention to, and planning them into however much longer you have left!

If the idea of Life Coaching, or Business Coaching if you are in business, appeals to you then please get in touch. www.butterflyeffectcoaching.co.uk

Unlike mothers, fathers do not always have automatic parental responsibility for their children. Nearly half of all children are now born out of wedlock, so it is not surprising that many parents may be uncertain about who has legal parental responsibility for their children.

Who has Parental Responsibility?

Parental responsibility is automatically given to the natural mother of her children from birth. However, the conditions for fathers gaining parental responsibility are far from clear.

Within England and Wales, if the parents of a child are married to each other at the time of the birth, or if they have jointly adopted a child, then they both have responsibility.

Parents do not lose parental responsibility if they divorce, and this applies to both parties.

The rules change for the case of unmarried parents. According to current law, a mother always has parental responsibility for her child, whereas a father only has this automatic right if he is married to the mother when the child is born, or has acquired legal responsibility for his child.

Legal responsibility can be obtained:

• By jointly registering the birth of the child with the mother from 1^st December 2003.
• By a parental responsibility agreement with the mother.
• By a parental responsibility order, made by a court.
• By marrying the mother of the child.

If the parents are not married, parental responsibility does not automatically pass to the natural father if the mother dies, unless he already has parental responsibility.

If the matter cannot be resolved by mutual agreement, it may be necessary to go down the route of applying to the courts.

Applying to the Courts for Parental Responsibility.

A father can approach the court to gain parental responsibility. In considering an application from a father the court will take the following into account:

• The amount of commitment shown by the father to his child.
• The amount of attachment between father and child.
• The reasons for applying for the order.

The court will then make a ruling to accept or decline the application, based on what it believes is in the child’s best interests.

A married step parent or civil partner may also be able to obtain parental responsibility in this way.

Parental responsibility is lost by those putting up a child for adoption. When the child has been formally adopted, the adoptive parents take on the parental responsibility.

If a child is the subject of a Care Order, the Local Authority has parental responsibility which is shared with the parents. If the child is in care voluntarily, parental responsibility remains with the parents.

Andrew Bates DipFA

Will Writer

Berkeley Trusts and Wills

Office: 01702-470054    Mobile: 07930-375833

E-mail: info@berkeleytrustsandwills.co.uk

Web: www.berkeleytrustsandwills.co.uk

The government is setting out its White Paper on social care later, amid calls for greater clarity on how it plans to fund the system in England.

It has said it agrees in principle with the idea of capping how much people have to pay but it will not explain how or when this will happen.

Instead it will focus on promising more equal access to council care for elderly and disabled people.

But charities and council leaders say greater clarity is urgently needed.

At the moment, each council can set its own eligibility criteria for care for the elderly and disabled.

Ministers will promise national standards by 2015 setting out who is entitled to help at home and residential care places.

There will also be a specific promise to allow those who face the largest costs to defer payment until after their death.

• How the system works

This loan scheme, which is already available in some areas, means those who need to go into care homes and are not entitled to state funding – anyone with assets of more than £23,250 does not get help – will have their fees paid for and then recovered from their estate.

Interest would accumulate on the loan.

Health Secretary Andrew Lansley said this meant that from April 2015 people would be able to delay selling their home to pay for residential care.

‘Unsustainable’

He told the BBC the deferred loan scheme would help people plan in the short term.

Mr Lansley added: “There are a number of big questions. I hope we will offer some real positive answers.”

And he said supported a cap “in principle”, but that work was needed to establish how it would be paid for.

What to look out for

The government has already released a lot of details about what will be in its Care and Support White Paper. But as always the devil will be in the details.

• Funding – The issue of capping costs has been relegated to a progress report, meaning there will be no firm commitments. But how it is worded and any detail about a timetable for making a decision will be key.

• Social care at the end of life – Free care was ruled out long ago, but there have been suggestions free help at the end of life could be piloted. While expensive, it could be funded from savings to the NHS as people often end up in hospital during their final days.

• National standards – The white paper will include details of a national system of eligibility. This will cover how severe a person’s needs are for them to be considered for help. The key will be at what threshold this is set at. The higher it is set, the smaller the number of people who get help.

But despite cross-party talks on the issue of funding and an independent review last year recommending a cap of £35,000 being placed on costs, ministers will not make specific commitments on what many believe is the key issue to reforming a system that is commonly said to be in crisis.

The cap is viewed as an essential way of getting the public to plan for old age and to encourage the insurance industry to get involved in developing policies for them, as it protects both from the risk of unlimited care costs.

Without this engagement, social care is deemed as unsustainable as free social care has already been ruled out.

The cap will be mentioned in a separate “progress report” accompanying the white paper, but it will not put forward any favoured proposals, government sources told the BBC.

Ministers have argued it is still possible legislation to reform funding will be introduced in this parliament, but many in the sector have expressed disappointment at the delay and are now arguing there needs to more detail about how the government will proceed from here.

Labour called on the government to divert some of the NHS’s underspend for social care.

“Today’s proposals are meaningless without the money to make them a reality,” shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said.

“George Osborne should get his act together and hand back half the money he has taken from the health budget.”

Sir Merrick Cockell, chairman of the Local Government Association, said: “There is an immediate crisis in social care which needs to be urgently addressed now.

“No-one would disagree that care should focus on an individual’s needs, but attempts to improve the quality of care are meaningless if there is no money for councils to provide these services.”

Michelle Mitchell, of Age UK, said: “The proposals will not live up to ambition without the solid foundation of a fair and sustainable funding structure so we need the government to make it clear how reforms will be funded and set out a clear timetable.”

And Carers UK chief executive Helena Herklots added: “Delay is not an option… families will demand an urgent timetable.”

The Red Cross’s Mike Adamson said councils were under “huge pressure” because of budget cuts and called on the government to explain how services allowing people to live at home for longer would be protected.

Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies told BBC Radio 4′s Today it was important that the government found an equitable way of paying for care.

“If you just look at this policy in isolation, it is essentially pensioners with reasonably significant assets who will benefit as a class,” he said.

• Annual cost of long term care in UK expected to rise from £26,000 currently a year to  £33,000 per person by 2025
• Longer life expectancy means a 37% increase in the number of people needing long term care in UK by 2025
• Almost one in five (17%) Brits are expecting to fund long term care for an elderly relative
• 11.5 million Brits (23%) would use their property to cover the cost of their own long term care
• 88% of Brits believe the Government needs to set a cap on how much people pay towards long term care
• On average, Brits think the long term care funding cap should be set at £14,000

(Press extract taken from The LV= Future of Long Term Care report 3 May 2012)

Your home could be under threat if you have to go into care!

In recent years it has become more apparent that the State will only provide for those with little or no savings or assets. Thanks to advances in medical science and a general improvement in diet and fitness, most people are living longer. With this in mind it is possible that one or even both partners in a household may require long term residential care at some point in the future. It is becoming much less common for elderly parents to move in with their offspring in later life.

People enter into long term care for many reasons, old age, a serious accident, a stroke or other major illnesses. Under the Community Care Act 1990, if a person has to go into care, the local authority can, by law, force the sale of, or put a charge against, the family home in respect of residential care fees. Care home costs can be in excess of £500 per week. This will soon eat away at the capital/assets you have spent a lifetime building up.

Whilst the local authorities will meet the cost of nursing and medical needs, the individual is liable for all costs related to their personal and residential care, and this is means tested. Under current legislation if you have assets, including your home, of more than £14,250 but less than £23,250 you are entitled to partial assistance with costs. If you have assets in excess of £23,250, you will have to pay all care costs! Could this affect you?

Please note, the family home will be disregarded if it is occupied by a partner, or other qualifying person, which means that the local authority will not include the value of the house when assessing the person’s ability to pay care fees.

Women have a one-in-four chance of needing long term care, and men a one-in-six chance.

The Daily Telegraph estimates 20000 homes are sold each year to pay for care home fees (16/06/11). If no action is taken in advance it is possible for the local authority to become the sole owner of the family home after the death of an elderly parent who has been living in a nursing home, effectively wiping out any potential inheritance for family and loved ones. But there is an answer.

A Protective Property Will Trust.

A ‘Protective Property Trust’ (PPT) is based around three things, the basis on which you own your property, the Trust, and your Wills, which contain the Trust.

A Protective Property Will Trust is only suitable for married couples, unmarried couples, and civil partnerships, who own their property.

It is too late to use a Protective Property Trust once one spouse/partner has passed away.

To create the Protective Property Trust firstly you need to check how the property is owned, whether as “Joint Tenants” or “Tenants in Common”. Most property these days is owned as “Joint Tenants”, with both tenants owning 100% of the property, to create the trust this tenancy needs to be split by way of a mutual notice, creating “Tenants in Common” who will generally own 50% of the property. This will then be registered with the Land Registry Office. The Trust is then included in both Wills but does not come into force until after the first death.

The following points are the main characteristics of a Protective Property Trust:

• Upon first death their share of the property is placed into the Trust to be administered by the Trustees nominated within the Will. The Will specifies who are to be the ultimate beneficiaries of this share in the property, and the Trustees duty is to look after the property for the benefit of the beneficiaries.
• The surviving spouse/partner is given a Life Interest in the deceased’s share of the property, so they are entitled to live in that property for the remainder of their life, and the property cannot be sold without their permission. On the death of the remaining spouse/partner the Trust is terminated, and the property is passed to the named beneficiaries.
• The surviving spouse/partner does not own the deceased’s share of the property. If they then go into residential care then only their share in the family home can be included as part of the means tested assessment. Bear in mind that the local authority will ask an Estate Agent to conduct a valuation of the property, but the value of half a property is generally considered to be “zero” as you cannot sell half a house.
• If the surviving spouse/partner chooses to downsize later, and move to another property the proceeds from the sale can be used to purchase the next property and the terms of the trust remain over the new property.
• If there is any excess capital following a sale then the money is invested and the surviving partner can derive an income from the interest that is generated.
• The deceased’s share in the property is fully protected for the named beneficiaries, so even if the surviving spouse/partner were to remarry the children’s share is protected. 

Deprivation of Assets

 
It is illegal to deliberately transfer your own property to relatives or trusts if your prime motive is to avoid paying long-term care costs, this is commonly known as “deprivation of assets”. However, it is not illegal for you and your partner to each make a provision within your Wills, that ensures upon first death, the deceased’s half-share of the property is left in trust for their children, or other named beneficiaries, rather than passing directly to the surviving spouse/partner.

Care costs in the UK are rising, and with careful forward planning large parts could be avoided!

Business continuity is one of the key elements in business planning, and is valid whether you are a Sole Trader, Partner, or Company Director where your main objective is to ensure the efficient running of the business in the event of any disruption which could happen if you became incapable of running, or making decisions about your business. This could be due to physical or mental incapacity, or simply because of your personal circumstances or being out of the country on holiday.

Business Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA)

If you have a business and you became ill, or have a major accident, you might find that your absence makes it difficult for your business to operate efficiently. Who could you trust to look after finances, such as paying staff & invoices, and to make decisions on your behalf if you were in hospital? Worse still if you lost mental capacity you and your business would be at the mercy of the Court of Protection, who would appoint a Deputy to run your affairs, which would not only be costly but take months to set up. Would you want your affairs run by a stranger, and would your business still be in a sound financial position?

Other issues to consider are what would your bank’s response be to your illness/accident?They may call in loans, freeze bank accounts etc, but by having an LPA in place for your business interests should help to head off these problems before they even surface.  

A Lasting Power of Attorney (Business) is a necessity for all business owners.                                                                                                                                       You can have two LPA’s (property), one appointing attorneys to act on your behalf within your business, another, probably appointing different attorneys, to act on your behalf in regards to your domestic financial affairs.

Your other option - leave it to the Court of Protection to appoint somebody they choose when the time comes, this is not only time consuming but expensive, and not the suggested route. 

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document used to appoint another person or persons to act on your behalf. There are two types of  Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), one to cover your financial affairs, the other to cover your health.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Property gives your chosen Attorney’s the right to look after all your financial affairs. For example looking after your bank accounts, paying utility bills, making investment decisions, or even selling your home. Restrictions can be built into a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) limiting the scope of the powers if required, but rest assured your Attorneys are fully accountable for their actions.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Health allows you to predetermine matters such as care needs i.e. you would rather stay in your own home, or life sustaining drugs etc, and takes the decision making away from somebody who possibly doesn’t know you.

To make either arrangement  you (the donor) needs to have mental capacity, once lost it is too late to act, forcing your family to make an expensive and long winded application to the Court of Protection.

Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA’s) need to be registered with the Court of Protection to make them valid, this is currently taking up to 13 weeks due to the realisation by many that this document is as vitally important as a Will.

By taking action today you can offset all the stress and the expense of the Court of Protection. Remember like a Will you need to arrange your Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in advance.

Look upon an LPA as an insurance policy, you hope you’ll never need to use it, but the consequences of not having one are a nightmare !

Here are just a few examples of how the Court of Protection acted under the guise of “protecting” my husband:

On the day the letter arrived confirming I had been appointed as Michael’s Receiver, another letter arrived demanding instant payment of £460, it threw me into a state of shock. Later, I was told this bill should have arrived a month later. However, this was just the first of many fees to be paid to the Court of Protection. They include a commencement fee (£240) and an appointment fee (£315), an administration fee (ranging from £190 to £240), an account fee (£100), various transaction fees (ranging from £60 to £540) and a winding-up fee (£290). To deal with the forms and additional accounts, I needed the help of an accountant, whose fees also had to be paid. Over the course of two and a half years, more than £3,000 was used up on administration fees alone to the Court of Protection.

As Michael’s Receiver I now had access to our accounts. But I was dismayed by the restrictions on my spending. I could write as many cheques as necessary up to £500. But if I needed to access more than that at any one time, I had to get permission from the Court – even to pay our daughter’s university fees and accommodation. Similarly, when I needed building work done, I had to submit two estimates and justify my choice of builder; I then had to wait several weeks for the Court to give permission and release the funds.

The nerve-racking experience was exacerbated by the fact that each time I phoned the Court, I spoke to a different clerk. I had to explain my distressing situation anew and then wait at least two weeks for a reply. I visited Michael daily. The Court also sent a representative to visit him. I found it humiliating. I was dealing with doctors, nurses and carers on a daily basis yet I could not help feeling that I was the one being checked up on.

But the most distressing incident concerned a strip of land in front of our Norfolk cottage. Before the accident, the local council had approached us to build a public footpath on it. The work was carried out while Michael was in a coma. But when it came to finalising the deeds and paying the agreed compensation, my role as Receiver was apparently insufficient. I was informed that the only way forward was to make someone else a trustee to the deeds of the cottage. The costs were almost equal to Michael’s share of the compensation.

I was furious. If it weren’t for the footpath, we would not have been in Norfolk that day and Michael would not have been hit by a car and would not now be in a coma. We had gone there to discuss the council’s plans. Overwhelmed and intimidated by the Court, furious and exhausted, I eventually asked the council to keep the compensation money until Michael either died or recovered.

The Court of Protection, no doubt, has a part to play in the life of someone with no close family or friends, who is at the mercy of strangers. But in our case it was an interfering, terrifying body using legal forms and archaic language to protect itself at huge cost to us.

After almost three years, Michael died. When I eventually received probate, I cried with grief. A few months later, when I finally closed the Receiver’s account, and my independence and self-respect returned, I cried with joy. At last I was free.

Yet all this could have been avoided – if only I’d known how. 

The “how” is a Lasting Power of Attorney (property). 

Help is at hand, the State will supply you with one absolutely FREE of charge ! This is known as the Laws of Intestacy.

The Laws of Intestacy.

The State has drawn up a set of laws that will be followed without exception for those who die without a valid Will, known as The Laws of Intestacy. They are strictly adhered to, and may lead to your spouse sharing your estate with your children, or parents, or in the worst case scenario the Crown if no living relatives can be found. If you are living with a partner and are unmarried, your partner may receive nothing!
If you have minor children, and haven’t nominated guardians through a Will, the local authorities will make that decision for you which may be upsetting to your family.

Why Have a Will?

Writing a Will is all about ensuring that your assets are passed on to the people you care about most. A certain satisfaction comes from knowing that you have minimised any potential issues following your death, by having a Will in place.

There are many issues that can be taken care of via a Will, so it is vitally important to make sure that these loose ends are covered, and you have the right type of Will which will highlight your personal and financial circumstances, making the granting of probate as easy as possible.

Having the right Will in place enables you to:

♣ Specify whom you wish to inherit your estate, in what order and in what proportions.
♣ Make specific gifts to family, friends or charities if appropriate.
♣ Appoint suitable guardians for minor children, rather than let the State decide.
♣ Arrange maintenance trusts for children, to protect their inheritance until an age specified by you.
♣ Guarantee children’s inheritance should the surviving spouse remarry.
♣ Help reduce Inheritance Tax (IHT), and can even help to reduce the effects of care home fees.
♣ Show you care about your loved ones and want to avoid as much grief and anxiety at a difficult time, rather than put your family through the rigour of the Laws of Intestacy, not to mention the extra time and expense.

By taking the time now to have a valid Will drawn up you can potentially save time, money (IHT), and distress to your loved ones.