Avoiding probate

[Soobee]

I'm sorry to say that I have actively avoided doing financial dealings for as long as I possibly could. I have found the whole business of dealing with financial institutions, care homes, solicitors and the local authorities incredibly difficult.

It's not that I am averse to numbers or banking, it's that I've had reason to make so many complaints over the last few years. Even looking at the paperwork related to M&S bank for instance almost brings me out in a rash as they were so difficult about a valid LPA, making joint and several attorneys act as joint. It really makes my blood boil that when carers are up to their ears in sorting out adequate care etc they have to also deal with incompetency in multiple organisations.

Now all the caring is over and I want to move on with my life, I am still seething.

I just made a list and I have had reason to complain to 15 different organisations including 3 care homes over the last 6 years. That's three quarters of the total number of organisations I dealt with. Not surprisingly I had to let many of the complaints go because I couldn't handle anything more at the time.

So when I am sorting through paperwork and I see it all again and it brings back all the frustration, I can only walk away and do something else until I have calmed down enough to face it again.

I just wish the organisations would make it easier and train their staff properly so that people don't still have to go through it now. But I fear very little has changed.

 

[Witzend]

I'm sorry to say that I have actively avoided doing financial dealings for as long as I possibly could. I have found the whole business of dealing with financial institutions, care homes, solicitors and the local authorities incredibly difficult.

It's not that I am averse to numbers or banking, it's that I've had reason to make so many complaints over the last few years. Even looking at the paperwork related to M&S bank for instance almost brings me out in a rash as they were so difficult about a valid LPA, making joint and several attorneys act as joint. It really makes my blood boil that when carers are up to their ears in sorting out adequate care etc they have to also deal with incompetency in multiple organisations.

Now all the caring is over and I want to move on with my life, I am still seething.

I just made a list and I have had reason to complain to 15 different organisations including 3 care homes over the last 6 years. That's three quarters of the total number of organisations I dealt with. Not surprisingly I had to let many of the complaints go because I couldn't handle anything more at the time.

So when I am sorting through paperwork and I see it all again and it brings back all the frustration, I can only walk away and do something else until I have calmed down enough to face it again.

I just wish the organisations would make it easier and train their staff properly so that people don't still have to go through it now. But I fear very little has changed.

I understand absolutely. We have had no end of trouble with banks etc. re P of A and executorship. So many staff are completely clueless and add so much to stress and time.

IMO this would be a good topic for the Alzh. Soc. to campaign on - approaching financial institutions directly to ask them to put proper procedures and thorough staff training in place. Some things that make you seethe are purely down to sheer sloppiness and carelessness - losing documents for starters, particularly when they have insisted on certified copies. It can be done - one or two institutions we have dealt with have been comparatively very efficient. Others are beyond hopeless.

One thing I learned, when registering a death it's well worth paying for several extra copies of the certificate.