My question is kind of rhetorical since my parent has now passed away. However I would be interest in the reply, and it might also be of use to others who are dealing with a loved one who has dementia.
I held an unregistered EPA for several years, and registered it a few years after my parent was diagnosed with dementia, as was advised to do so by social services (although I know I didnt actually need a second opinion, it was pretty evident that my parent was becoming very confused where money was concerned).
To cut a long story short, all was going well, till I went away for a weekend, leaving parent in the care of just the four daily carers. On my return, another family member had all but moved in, and began a very vitriolic and sustained campaign to convince my parent that I had done something wrong with regard to the management of the EPA. I considered that I had done nothing wrong, had kept every receipt for everything purchased, and purchased everything with my parents consent (difficult, since some days they had more capacity than others!), including some purchases which were, to be honest, out of character (new sofas every year for instance) , but nevertheless my parent wanted to buy these things. I checked frequently with the OPG that I was doing the correct thing. I was told "yes".
Once the other family member (who had little to do with my parent for several years beforehand) was in situ, my parent gradually became very "anti" me, and refused to go out with me to go shopping (we had great trips before, lots of fun and smiles, and were always so very close). I tried taking food round, based on my knowledge of previous purchases, but this was often refused as was new clothing and offers of trips out. In the end, I was reduced to leaving a set amount of cash with my parent each week, and received zero receipts (because both parent and other family member refused to provide any). The amount of cash I left was way more than we usually spent, the amount being set by the other family member and of course backed up by parent who seemed thoroughly under the spell of the other family member. I checked with OPG if this amount would be OK, since I wouldnt be able to complete proper paperwork for this as I wasnt getting any receipts. They said it was OK as I had noted what was happening. All bills were paid by direct debit, so the amount I left was to cover food and clothing etc. I told other family member and parent that if anything else was required, something large, then since neither parent or other family member would allow me to purchase it using the EPA, the other family member could purchase it, and I would refund the family member when I was presented with a receipt. No receipts were ever forthcoming.
In short, I believe I was manipulated into a situation where I was made out to be the bad guy, when I was actually trying to properly do my duties as attorney, in circumstances where my parent had actively said in the past that the reason i had the EPA in the first place was because they didnt want that family member to ever be in a position to medal in their financial affairs.
Once the other family member had managed to get parent to change their Will in complete favour of said family member (after visiting a doctor who gave parent the go ahead to make a will, after parent could reel out a list of figures, thus "proving" financial capacity), the family member disappeared on holiday within a week, never to see my parent again. My parent, after a day or two, seemed to come out of the "fog" of the previous few months, and was fine towards me, and we resumed our close relationship as we were before all of this happened. Parent made no mention of "give me X amount of cash", and in fact never mentioned money or pension amounts ever again, nor expressed any dissatisfaction with anything I did with regard to the EPA.
What I think happened, was that my elderly parent was coerced , and the certificate of capacity was issued by a doctor who did not know the background to the situation. My parent could remember snipets of information if they were repeated often, and was certainly more alert when agitated. I believe the other relative agitated my parent with repeated accusations (the cleaner and carers said that I was always being discussed in a bad light by the other family member when I was not present) and that parent was also being constantly schooled as to the amount of pension / pension credit etc that they received. I actually tested this theory out on my parent after all this happened, and they didnt have a clue how much money they were in receipt of!
Upon discovery of the new Will, parent then made another Will (without my help or attendance) which actually more or less mirrored the original long standing Will.
Meanwhile I was vilified on social media by the family member, then people who didnt even know me started joining in, and I was accused of all sorts including plundering parents bank account to fund my business (untrue), having something to do with my parents death... they suggested that the police should be involved with regard to parents death and that a crime pay have been committed (untrue, of course) and other vile and horrible things.
The point of this long post is that the OPG does not have the capacity to investigate other people, only the attorney (and I had done nothing wrong). However, the other family member had set up direct debits (using online services) on my parents bank account, had managed to get the bank to send them five years worth of my parents statements, had allowed quite a large sum of money each week to be used "somehow" without giving me any receipts, whilst I later found out that my parent had been begging a neighbour for food (parent lost several stones in weight over this awful period, so it is possible that they were left short of food and other basics). I believe my parent was starved, and left short of money (god knows where the money went!) and was coerced into thinking it was my fault.
The law needs to be tightened up somehow to protect the donor from unscrupulous people ** and its not always the attorneys who are the unscrupulous ones! ***
It cost me over £3k of my own money to engage solicitors to stop the other family member from undermining the EPA. In the end, the police and social services were involved and the other family member ended up in prison due to a different reason - but no one listened to me when all of this was going on because my parent, who was diagnosed with dementia, was adamant that I was the bad guy. Various services need to be made more aware of this because, as I have read on here loads of times, ours is not the only case where this type of thing has happened. They only listened when the family member had left the scene, in the knowledge that they had the will sewn up to their benefit. No one cared beforehand, that my parent had little to eat, wore the same half dozen pairs of what were meant to be disposable underwear for over half a year, lost so much weight that their trousers were being held up by safety pins....they only cared when the parent had gotten out of the fog of being convinced that things were different from what they actually were.
I apologise for the lengthy message, which obviously contains more info than you need in order to answer the question, but as you can see, years after my parents death, this still breaks my heart.
What can be done to stop this happening to other EPA / LPA holders who are just trying to do the right thing? It seems like the attorneys should have some means of being able to complain when they are being thwarted in doing their duties, because at the moment, it seems only non attorneys have that right.