Deputyship Granted - keeping track of finances?

[Zakkypotter]

Hello all,
I finally have received my court of protection order giving me deputyship to deal with mums finances.
Please could anyone tell me the best way to record financial transactions - at the moment I am keeping receipts and noting is all on bank statements, but is it best done in a spreadsheet or do the OPG give me a template?
Best wishes to all

 

[Chizz]

Hi @Zakkypotter
Well done for getting the order. I bet it took ages!

The Court of Protection will require you, at the end of each year of the deputyship, to put in an account to them - on their form. This is to show (i) what was the total of all money held at the start date (and for the first year the start date is the date of the Deputyship Order) and (ii) what was the total of all money received in during the year (pensions, savings interest, share dividends, state benefits etc, etc) and (iii) what the total of all money spent out during the year (income tax on income if payable, care fees, and anything else applicable - eg, gas, electricity, telephone, computer, property repairs and replacements, clothes, toiletries, holidays, your travel to and from the PWD, etc, etc and the Court of Protection admin fees) and (iv) what was the total of all money held at the end of the year.

How you get to providing the info is up to you and what system you feel comfortable in maintaining. Bear in mind the Court can ask you to supply all details that could include bank statements (or computer screen shots), HMLR receipts, care home receipts, etc etc. Thus if you are happy just writing everything down on paper, so be it. A computer excel spread sheet is fine too. You will need to be reasonably neat and tidy in your filing and keeping all the bits and bobs, paper, etc in good order so you know where things are, should you be asked to produce things.

When the PWD dies, you will, of course, need to do an account for the period from the previous account to the date of death. Including estimates for any income tax due, if applicable etc., but otherwise like the previous accounts, and that has to be cleared by the Court before anything else can be done with assets in the estate of the PWD.

Just make absolutely sure that anything to do with the Deputyship is entirely separate from anything to do with you personally.

I trust that is of assistance. You will find some help online on the CoP website as well.
Best wishes.

 

[canary]

When I was mums deputy I used to be sent an annual financial assessment form that I had to fill in and return. They wanted to know exactly what I had spent mums money on and they divided it up into different categories. To make this easier for myself I used a spreadsheet that I filled in as I went along and kept a file for mums bank statements and receipts.

I believe that you can now fill in a financial assessment form on-line and can fill it in as you go along, but do keep all statements of accounts and all receipts in case of queries

 

[thistlejak]

We used the COP online form to keep a record. Once we had sorted out and consolidated the many accounts for MIL we used to fill the COP form in each time we got bank statements. We also kept all receipts and bills. The first year we couldn't get the totals to tally - we were 0.01 % of the total out - so were asked to submit - on line -all her bank statements but not receipts/bills.

The way the COP sort things out on the form is , to my mind, at bit weird so , rather than duplicate things, we went for using their form for submission and record keeping.

 

[Zakkypotter]

Hi @Zakkypotter
Well done for getting the order. I bet it took ages!

The Court of Protection will require you, at the end of each year of the deputyship, to put in an account to them - on their form. This is to show (i) what was the total of all money held at the start date (and for the first year the start date is the date of the Deputyship Order) and (ii) what was the total of all money received in during the year (pensions, savings interest, share dividends, state benefits etc, etc) and (iii) what the total of all money spent out during the year (income tax on income if payable, care fees, and anything else applicable - eg, gas, electricity, telephone, computer, property repairs and replacements, clothes, toiletries, holidays, your travel to and from the PWD, etc, etc and the Court of Protection admin fees) and (iv) what was the total of all money held at the end of the year.

How you get to providing the info is up to you and what system you feel comfortable in maintaining. Bear in mind the Court can ask you to supply all details that could include bank statements (or computer screen shots), HMLR receipts, care home receipts, etc etc. Thus if you are happy just writing everything down on paper, so be it. A computer excel spread sheet is fine too. You will need to be reasonably neat and tidy in your filing and keeping all the bits and bobs, paper, etc in good order so you know where things are, should you be asked to produce things.

When the PWD dies, you will, of course, need to do an account for the period from the previous account to the date of death. Including estimates for any income tax due, if applicable etc., but otherwise like the previous accounts, and that has to be cleared by the Court before anything else can be done with assets in the estate of the PWD.

Just make absolutely sure that anything to do with the Deputyship is entirely separate from anything to do with you personally.

I trust that is of assistance. You will find some help online on the CoP website as well.
Best wishes.

Thank you, yes, I first applied in May 2023 and it was granted end of January 2024.
Thank you also for your advice and guidance - its is very much appreciated!

 

[Zakkypotter]

When I was mums deputy I used to be sent an annual financial assessment form that I had to fill in and return. They wanted to know exactly what I had spent mums money on and they divided it up into different categories. To make this easier for myself I used a spreadsheet that I filled in as I went along and kept a file for mums bank statements and receipts.

I believe that you can now fill in a financial assessment form on-line and can fill it in as you go along, but do keep all statements of accounts and all receipts in case of queries

Thank you, yes, a spreadsheet sounds good

 

[Misslovely]

Hi. I have deputyship for my Mum’s finances (it took over a year). I log all expenditure the deputies have made on a spreadsheet and file email receipts/invoices in case they are requested when I do the main deputy report.

I did the new deputy report which wasn’t too bad and I will have to do the main one in May (not looking forward to it). If you have any questions you can ring the deputy lay office. They are helpful