Dealing with financial companies as an attorney (POA)

[Powelly2]

I’m new this forum and welcome the chance to share experiences and discover what may be out there to help.

I have been an attorney for my father for a number of years. He has fairly advanced dementia and I look after his financial affairs. Both my parents very sensibly arranged wills and power of attorney for myself and my sisters before they became unable to look after their own affairs due to dementia.

I’m sure I am not the first to comment on how our financial services providers deal with POA administration. In the context that new financial regulations (post 2008) have made security more significant than at any other time (justifiably). My main observations would be;

• financial institutions have taken insufficient steps to deal with attorneys requirements and issues.
• their support teams have had insufficient training in dealing with POA requests and issues. (whose DOB do you want? Mine or my fathers?!!- what address do you have on file, mine or the care home?!).
• their documentation is insufficient to cover POA affairs. Usually only referring to the original investor/client or an IFA.
• that having gone through the rather tortuous (and costly) process of setting up POAs, attorneys regularly have to re-verify themselves, often when an institution has changed internal provide etc.
• this involves more time and cost by having to certify documents via solicitors and sending sensitive information and important documents in the post.
• most sensitively for me, was the emotional and painful experience of seeing my parents during the earlier stages of dementia trying to call and then navigate through financial companies customer support desks, voice recognition systems and other woefully inadequate and inappropriate processes.

My interest therefore is how can we put pressure on our financial institutions to help the many with POA, to influence change in their processes to make them more efficient whilst ensuring our very necessary security. Higher security should not equal unnecessary inefficiency. The fees we pay should allow us a better service.

I regularly write and comment directly to those companies I feel have let me down. But as we all know, if larger bodies, interest groups and charities raise concerns, they tend to sit up and listen more.

 

[Jaded'n'faded]

I completely agree. It is time the worst offenders were called out for the way they treat people.

Perhaps it is time for a more 'universal' system. Once you have POA, the procedure at each financial institution should be the same. At present they all have their own rules, are poorly informed and make the whole thing unnecessarily difficult.

With the aging population increasing at an alarming rate, more people will hold POA for relatives. Not everyone is tech savvy but unfortunately, all 'new' rules and regulations seem to assume we all live on a smart phone.

As if we haven't got enough to cope with...

 

[Helly68]

It is hard to know the answer here, I can only say form my experience, some companies are great, and some bank front line staff have no idea how POA work. Tried to register a POA with my Dad's bank, we had all the relevant paperwork. The bank have lost our request twice.

I have seen that using twitter to air your grievance - a short description of your woes, copying in the companies concerned, can work well in goading the companies into doing something.

I also find that local authorities expect everyone to do everything online these days and cannot provide written confirmation of some transactions, which is worrying and means I need to everything like this for my Dad, who doesn't use a computer. I feel for those who don't have younger relatives to do this for them, and lose out on beneftis.

 

[Sirena]

I completely agree that the system needs to be universalised with the same info and process required for each institution. They all have different rules, some which are ridiculous and infuriating, requiring you to 're-verify' something which is already verified. And all this at a time when we're already under stress, and may need urgent access to funds for care.

The first sign that my mother had dementia five years ago was her inability to deal with phone banking, which she needed to navigate in order to transfer money to her current account. She couldn't remember what her passwords were, or what the process was, so she had to ask us to help. She never used the internet which is which is probably a blessing - but being online has enabled me to do many things easily on her behalf.

 

[northumbrian_k]

I've posted elsewhere on this thorny issue. My experience so far has been a mixed bag of organisations that either follow Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) guidelines or make up their own rules:

- claim for Attendance Allowance: straightforward once a copy certified by the Donor as per OPG guidelines had been sent in (and returned): all correspondence from Department of Work and Pensions now addressed to me

- representative access to high street bank accounts: straightforward via booked face to face appointment, also covering subsidiary savings bank, by allowing a copy of the original document to be taken; internet, branch and telephone banking enabled, new debit card in my name as representative

- internet/telephone savings bank: made up own rules which included a strange list of people who could 'certify' a plain copy of the original (including teacher, dentist, doctor and minister of religion) and refusal to accept Donor certified copy

- investment bank via independent financial adviser: said that it would accept a certified copy if this was done by a solicitor or notary only, not clear if Donor certified copy will be accepted

For details see:
https://forum.alzheimers.org.uk/thr...not-accepted-by-financial-institution.115692/

 

[Helly68]

And then there was the high street bank who said "Why are you doing this? it is fine, your mother can just come in and use her account". We had already met with them to explain the situation...

She had been in a care home for a while then, and I doubt would have known what to do with a bank card. The level of ignorance about POA is truly amazing sometimes....

 

[Bod]

It's the old answer, when you find a suitable organisation that you can deal with sensibly, you move all/most of your business to them.

Bod

 

[Sirena]

It's the old answer, when you find a suitable organisation that you can deal with sensibly, you move all/most of your business to them.

Bod

Well yes of course - but the problem is that in order to do that, you have to deal with the ones who are hopeless and obstructive in order to remove your PWD's custom (as I am doing at the moment).

 

[Powelly2]

Many thanks for the posts on this subject. It's no surprise to see that it's not only a much discussed subject but also that many people have experienced the issues raised. I'll continue to find ways to put pressure on the relevant bodies (e.g. OPG, FCA and Financial Ombudsman) to help make the process more consistent amongst financial institutions and encourage customer services teams to be better trained in the area of POA/LPA.
I agree with the sentiment of keeping things as simple as possible and finding companies that are better in this area. (Though as mentioned, in order to get there, investments held by those we are attorneys for have to be sold or dealt with first.)
Keep battling!