Enduring POW & opening savings accounts

Sweetie

Registered User
Nov 27, 2005
13
0
North Yorkshire
Hi, I wonder if anyone can help.

Mum has now gone into a care home and we have an amount of money (approx £25,000) that we want to put into a savings account with easy access. Am having difficulty finding one that will accept Enduring Power of Attorney. At present it is sitting in the bank savings account which is a decent rate but pays no interest iin any month that a withdrawal is made - so defeats the object really. Any suggestions please?
 

Áine

Registered User
Feb 22, 2006
994
0
sort of north east ish
Hi Sweetie,

Does the bank your mum has her present account with not offer a savings account with a better rate that you can swap to? I've just got power of attorney for dad - been into his bank and building society to change details etc - and they're very keen to talk to me about moving some of his money into higher interest accounts.

Áine
 

Brucie

Registered User
Jan 31, 2004
12,413
0
near London
Who is the named attorney for the EPA? They should be able to open accounts for her.

I have had no problems at all opening accounts with Woolwich and NatWest - and also in closing accounts, moving money to new higher interest accounts, ISAs etc.... all using an EPA where I was the attorney.
 

bernie

Registered User
Jul 28, 2005
52
0
south london
all major bank's and building societies should offer just about all their services to an EPA holder.

I work for a bank and quite often when somebody does not no the answer to a complicated query they will just say no we don't as it is the easy way out.

My suggestion is look on the Internet and once you have found the account you want speak to somebody senior
 

LindaD

Registered User
Nov 17, 2004
30
0
Suffolk
Managing money

My brother has been moving my parents' not inconsiderable amounts of money about for some time since they originally went into a home to maximise the return without any problems. This was originally by using a third party option on their accounts and leter with the EPA. He has put some into ISAs and some into high interest accounts using the internet banking on their accounts which he applied for in their names.
 

Kriss

Registered User
May 20, 2004
513
0
Shropshire
I had mixed levels of service from various banks. HSBC - tedious and constantly having to refer for help, Abbey National - no questions asked, Nat West - wonderfully helpful and knowledgable.

THE EPA gives you every authority to act on the donors behalf even in its unregistered state. Once registered with the COP then as Attorney you are bound by the "all actions must be for the benefit of the donor" - as if they weren't before.

Kriss
 

oonaghw

Registered User
Dec 4, 2005
18
0
isle of man
Hi Sweetie

Kriss has mentioned the Court of Protection (COP) and as far as I am aware (financial services background) the EPA is only valid once registered with the COP - hence opening a bank account on behalf of a third party (related or not) is not really valid unless the EPA has been registered.
Hope this helps
 

Áine

Registered User
Feb 22, 2006
994
0
sort of north east ish
Kriss said:
I had mixed levels of service from various banks. HSBC - tedious and constantly having to refer for help, Abbey National - no questions asked, Nat West - wonderfully helpful and knowledgable.

I've been dealing with HSBC, Woolwich and Yorshire building soc. and also had mixed responses. Woolwich seemed to know what they were doing and were very kind. Yorkshire also v. kind and trying to be helpful, but seemed to have never encoutered anything like this before :eek: HSBC - mixed response, which makes me think it's as much about individual employees as much/more than the bank. When I took the EPA in the guy kept dashing off to sort things out - must have been in there nearly an hour, most of it waiting for him to return from about 6 trips upstairs to ask things. However, the previous woman, Ellen, that I dealt with was wonderful. She'd picked up that dad wasn't quite with it a while before he went into care, and was concerned about him and what he was doing with his money, and managed to get a contact number from him for me. She made a time for her and me and dad to meet. We sorted out third party and shuffled some things around so that he couldn't do anything to drastic with his finances until I got EPA. She was a real support at a time when I seemed quite stuck in sorting dad out - and a real boost in my faith in society to take care of vulnerable people :)
 

Áine

Registered User
Feb 22, 2006
994
0
sort of north east ish
Pow

Sweetie, I hope you don't mind me commenting on your title of "POW" for this thread. Maybe it's a typo, but I'm aware that I've also got muddled about it and called it a POW. But, actually, isn't it an EPA (enduring power of attorney) ..... or maybe a POA (power of attorney)? I'm wondering if we both got muddled by association? POW is a prisoner of war isn't it? Not to belittle the horrors that many POWs have been through .... but ....... maybe that's a little bit how it feels????????
 

connie

Registered User
Mar 7, 2004
9,519
0
Frinton-on-Sea
Would just point out that once we had registered Lionel's EPA with the COP, I was unable to add my name to one of his bank accounts.

I sign his cheque book, printed L K May, with my name C Harris. Have had cheques returned before now, asking if I had used wrong account.
Had I made that account joint, before registering, it would have been OK.

Of course, it could just be Nat West's policy..........I gave up on that account.
 

Kriss

Registered User
May 20, 2004
513
0
Shropshire
oonaghw said:
the EPA is only valid once registered with the COP - hence opening a bank account on behalf of a third party (related or not) is not really valid unless the EPA has been registered.

In its "unregistered" state it allowed us to become second signatories in effect. Each bank went through its own process of logging the EPA (their own form of registration?), we had to provide the same identity details as when we would have had we been opening our own accounts. As the account were set up with single signatures required on cheques then any one of us - Aunt, me or other Attorney - could use the account/cheque books and transfer funds, close accounts, set up investments etc. This was critical in the early stages as Aunt was rapidly losing her ability to sign her name even though she remained very much in control of what she wanted to achieve.

All indicted that should the time come for the EPA to be registered with the COP then they be updated and at that point my Aunts name was REMOVED from the signatory list as no longer deemed capable of dealing with her financial affairs.

I therefore would challenge the quote of "not really valid until registered" as it is an extremely powerful document in ANY state but one that we have found invaluable and must have saved not only time but also the costs of using the COP directly.

I think maybe an EPA is slightly different to the older POA and we are comparing different creatures? I do not have any experience of the latter - Dads affairs were much simpler as HSBC recognised the early warning "signature" difficulties and allowed Mum to become a joint account holder while he was syill able to indicate his agreement. Everything else was already held jointly

Phoning the Alzheimers Society helpine or even the COP would probably help to clarify your position. Or refer to your solicitor.

Kriss