Hi everyone and welcome to today's Q&A on LPA Our experts, Helen and Flora, are here to answer your questions on this topic.
NB: Flora and Helen will try and help as best they can, but please be aware that they can't give legal or financial advice.
Never let a family member or friend be appointed as an Attorney for an LPA is what I would advise if there is quite a bit of money or a property involved. Unlike a COP financial deputyship, it is totally unregulated and very much open to abuse.
Having been in a terrible situation with my late Father whereby his Attorney for his LPA cleared out all his funds both during the last 7 months of his life and after his death (even though an LPA ceases after a persons death) including encashing shares, 3 hours after his death, I am personally of the opinion, that only a solicitor or bank should be able to be an Attorney. There are so many stories whereby unscrupulous family members have stolen money from a PWD and never been brought to task over it, as sadly, the police dont want to know if its a family member involved.
Five years on from my Fathers death, despite getting a forensic accountant to write a report supporting all my findings, as an Executor to my Fathers will, I have sadly never been able to enact out his wishes and give his money to his various beneficiaries. It's now cost me £20,000 of my own money fighting this in solicitors fees and accountant fees and still I have got nowhere as the Attorney believes all money is theirs despite a valid will having been in place saying otherwise. There is also a house involved so it is all very complicated. Be careful who you entrust. Its absolutely heartbreaking for me to still not have closure over my Fathers death because all this is hanging over me. He would be horrified. He was a hard working man and was comfortably well off and had a will in place and an LPA but sadly he was coerced into trusting the wrong people.
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"...
Hi everyone and welcome to today's Q&A on LPA Our experts, Helen and Flora, are here to answer your questions on this topic.
NB: Flora and Helen will try and help as best they can, but please be aware that they can't give legal or financial advice.
On a roll with Questions....again hypothetical but must be relevant to some people.
Financial POA clearly gives Attorney power to act on behalf of the individual but how do you ensure organisation doesn't accept instructions from individual if they have lost capacity.
Do you have to provide copy of Welfare POA along with confirmation of incapacity to the organisations?
How does the Q&A work, I was expecting a webinar (seems to be the 'thing' these days) but I can't see a link. Is it a case of knowledgeable people from the society answering the questions that have been posted in the forum?
My partner appointed myself and our two children as his Attornies for both Finance and Health & Welfare after being
diagnosed with Alzheimers several years back, fullyregistered with OPG. While it has been clear to family members for a long time that he is unable to deal with our strategic financial affairs, he remains very plausible to those outside the family. Recently he has shown interest in taking out equity release on the family home and commuting his pension to spend as much money as possible 'before it's too late' (he has a further serious health condition).
My question is who exactly should decide whether a person has capacity to take such decisions? Lawyers seem to think it's doctors, while doctors suggest a lawyer should be involved.
If the Attornies feel they are best-placed to make such decisions on his behalf, what steps would you advise them to take?
Hi.Sorry-there isn't enough information here to be able to provide a helpful reply. Can you send some more background please?First time hear not sure can my sunt take standing order to pay bills gas elec food ect as they live with deputy and bills are shared food would bought from this as well as shared bills
We have has the most terrible time since my mum who had dementia secretly gave POA to her friend and her husband. The husband was a very authoritative, dominant ex-police officer and mum would eventually be completely controlled by them. It's a very long story, they completely abused their powers for financial gain, even taking mum to the solicitors to change her will to completely disinherit all of her family. We did challenge the poas and mums consultant even wrote to the opg to say that these people were not suitable poas if they made an application. This was apparently received at the wrong time so it all went through without challenge. We only recently discovered much of the abuse after mums death. Could you suggest any specialist help we may be able to get or any way we can help campaign against elder abuse.
Thank you
Kristy
Hi there. My question is more a point of advice, really. My mum has recently been diagnosed with dementia and we (me and my two siblings) are encouraging her to get LPA. She is generally reluctant as her dementia is presenting her with trust/delusion issues around money. On some days she seems more receptive; but then may forget she's been that way! Any advice on how (or who?) could encourage her to put the LPA in place? We believe she would currently be deemed fit to do so, as she's just had her will re-done and the solicitor was aware of the diagnosis. We have tried getting the solicitor to suggest it, but no luck as yet. Thank you.
Is there reading I can do on this that is not online eg on the OPG site or here? I have both flavours of PoA registered for my 100yr old father but it is hard to see how to use them. Took me 3 appointments to open a 123 account using this and often seems better to try to sort things without it ... in the end I opened an account in joint names as otherwise I would have to show the document every time I made a change. With the health thing ... just had a torrid time with a hospital ... them failing to acknowledge dementia in my father so no proper supervison... no records ... wrong diagnosis ... telling them to deal with me because I had H&W PoA and knew the history made no difference. Perhaps I can take the H. authority to task on this? Basically, how do other people get on with it? Is there a manual?