Interesting, Aisling, that you write this:
I have always given excellent gifts to my family ( my decision) but my future may involve an illness that warrants POA. Then I will be trusting people with POA to use whatever I have for my care and needs only. I would not be able to make decisions regarding gifts etc. and I don't want anyone else to make decisions based on what I used to do.
personally, that's how I think about dad's financial affairs - I know what he DID in the past; I have little idea of what he decided not to do (though he did mention a few things which give me an inkling into his reasoning on matters); I find that as soon as someone else mentions what he 'used to do' or what he 'would want to do', I am uncomfortable - no-one can read someone else's mind - and I know some of the things I used to do I now wouldn't do again ever - so, I believe, the minimum is to be done for others with a donors funds; for me, it's dad's money, it is to be spent on him
and that "in best interests", I think, needs to be thought of/altered to "in best
financial interests" since the POA is for finance & property; it's not about the past or what might have made a donor feel good before and it's certainly not about giving/loaning/gifting money to anyone else - the duty, to me, is to conserve the funds as far as possible whilst paying all necessary fees and expenses of the donor
I don't really see why any adult needs to have gifts from someone who has lost the capacity to deal with their own financial affairs - I do understand that Attorneys may want to continue to make gifts to children (to me, under 18) to whom the donor regularly gave birthday + Christmas presents - and I do understand that a donor may want to put a tenner or so in a card to a child themselves
however, the OPG wording re POA seems to leave leeway for Attorneys to make decisions - and I've certainly had thrown at me that 'others interpret that differently' when someone wants to gift some of a donor's money; and when a loan was given 'that's what the donor would have wanted'; 'that's what families do, they help each other out'; 'the donor adored his grandchildren so would want to help them' ....
thing is, I doubt donors would be thinking about all of this when signing POAs - which grandparent wants to put 'no more gifts'? - and though I advocate having POAs signed if the donor will understand what is being agreed to at that moment but may have forgotten a short time later, I wonder if, under those circumstances, the donor is able to go into detail about guidelines as to how to deal with the funds
I guess most donors will choose close family members to be their Attorneys, which in many ways seems very sensible; in others it immediately creates a potential conflict of interest - and given that there is effectively very little oversight of how Attorneys (rather than Deputies) deal with a donor's affairs, I guess most actions are not questioned by anyone else .... though I'm not suggesting that most Attorneys act inappropriately, many seem to worry over every penny and even put themselves out of pocket for fear of doing something wrong, which is a different concern, and probably what the OP had in mind ...
sorry; gone 'off piste' - I'm in a bad mood and probably looking at the bleak side of things - apologies - this is all my personal opinions and it's not gone down well with another; maybe I'm just 'tight' and living up to a Yorkshire stereotype and should loosen up
best wishes to all
