Power of attorney and fixed term deposit account

[AQuery]

Hi,
A family member is acting as Power of attorney on behalf of an aunt, who is in a nursing home and no longer able to live independently, or look after her financial affairs.

She has a fixed term deposit account with over 50K in it. The term expired 18months ago and has been earning next to nothing in interest ever since (i.e. 5cents a day in interest).
The power of attorney has been set up on the account for well over a year now.

The Bank said the procedure to get access to the funds is to send a signed letter stating the request, which is to move the funds to her current account in the same bank. The money is needed to be able to pay nursing home fees and do some essential maintenance on her home, which is lying empty for more than two years etc.

This letter was sent over 2 weeks ago. Having heard nothing since, the family member followed up with phone calls today. After a search for the letter, which was eventually found, the status as far as the "fixed term deposit account" department is concerned is that the request is with "legal and administration", and is out of its hands. There is no insight into what the happening, or what the delay might be. No time frame for having the issue resolved (whatever "it" is), and no point of contact has been given, only that "legal and administration" will contact us at some point.

Does anyone have any insight to this, or advice please. Our experience so far is that power of attorney gets you very little when it comes to the banks. Do we need to get my aunt's solicitors on the case?

Thanks in advance.

 

[demoivre]

Hi,
A family member is acting as Power of attorney on behalf of an aunt, who is in a nursing home and no longer able to live independently, or look after her financial affairs.

Is the bank aware of your aunts inability to give direction about her affairs because Power of attorney ceases once the donator, the aunt in this case, becomes mentally incapable.

 

[AQuery]

No, they are not aware of what her health issues are, although they know she is in a nursing home.
But actually, what I wrote is not quite correct - she is not mentally incapable, rather physically incapable of living and managing her affairs alone. She was deemed mentally fit enough by her doctors and solicitor to sign the power of attorney a couple of months after the illness (stroke) started. She still has that same level of mental capacity if not better.

Her biggest problem for managing the financial affairs is aphasia. The people who care for her in the nursing home and her relatives agree that she understands what we tell her and ask her, but she finds it difficult to convey a response that is more than yes/no etc. So some conversations involves us trying to guess what it is that she is asking or telling us, sometimes without success. But if we are trying to find out something from her, we must phrase what we want to ask her so that yes/no answers are required, and that way she is able to "answer".

However, the thing is - my aunt doesn't want to give direction about her financial affairs. We think that it is because she knows that she can never go back to living independently, and she has "switched off" from her old life. She tells us she is happy enough with the nursing home, and doesn't want to move to another one; she doesn't want to have her home renovated so that she could go back there with 24 hour nursing care etc. She doesn't want to know what is happening to her house etc, just says she trusts us to do what is best.

She doesn't qualify for fairdeal, so her money is just being used to pay for her nursing home and medical needs. And all the most easily accessed money is used up already.
While most of her investments are earning very little, this account is earning nothing - so it is an obvious choice for the next account to be used for the nursing home fees, and for the bills associated with maintaining her house.

Thanks for your reply.

 

[AQuery]

Hi,

My aunt's GP visited her in the nursing home, and was happy to sign a letter which should cover the situation.
The GP charged 120 euro.

Is that a reasonable fee, given that the GP was visiting the home anyway, compliments of the medical card - no special visit was required, as the GP visits the home for a half-day every week.
Is this a fee that the bank should cover(as suggested by my aunt's solicitor), given that they have given rise to it? Only one bank has raised any issue with the POA (so far anyway).

thanks.

 

[mf1]

"Is that a reasonable fee"

Yes.

Is this a fee that the bank should cover""

No.

Move on.

mf