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Know more about Power of Attorney with us and how to register

Here’s a guide on how to register a trusted person to manage your account and finances

In some circumstances it may be necessary to allow a third party to access or manage your business accounts on behalf of an account holder. The information below will help you gain further insight before applying for Power of Attorney.

  • Donor’s circumstances and capability
    If you wish to act as someone’s Attorney with a bank, you must make a declaration about whether the donor still has capacity (continuing to sign cheques and receive statements and correspondence, for example) or whether they lack capacity, in which case the attorneys take over entirely. No medical evidence is required for this, although attorneys must report the donor’s condition accurately.
    If the donor lacks capacity, they will no longer be able to issue cheques or authorise withdrawals from their account, for example. If they have capacity, but require an attorney to act on their behalf for certain transactions due to physical incapacity, for example, they can continue to make withdrawals and issue cheques independently.

  • Multiple Attorneys/Deputies
    Where more than one attorney/deputy is to be appointed, their documentation may authorise them to act ‘jointly’, or ‘jointly and severally’. If the documentation does not state which, they will be treated on the basis that they are appointed jointly.

England and Wales

Jointly
A joint POA requires all Attorneys to act together in order to authorise an act. The death of one Attorney will cause the POA to terminate.

Jointly and Severally
A jointly and severally POA permits Attorneys to act together or on their own and one Attorney can bind the others. The death of one Attorney would not necessarily terminate the POA providing that the others can continue to act jointly and severally. Where Attorneys are required to sign together jointly, certain facilities such as cards, Internet Banking and Telephone Banking will not be available.

 

Scotland

Reference to joint Guardians just indicates that there is more than one. It is up to the Attorneys whether they want to act together. The death of one Attorney will not cause the Intervention to terminate.

What is an attorney able to do?
When an attorney is granted POA, they will be able to do most of the things a donor/granter can do, including:

  • Operate an overdraft e.g. increase/decrease Withdrawals/Deposits
  • Open new/secondary bank and savings accounts
  • Close an account - care must be taken with deposit of funds and it must be in Donor/Granter’s best interest
  • Sell and buy currency notes and traveller’s cheques
  • Set up, amend, suspend and cancel Standing Orders and Direct Debits
  • Request International Payments and Foreign Cheques
  • Access Safe Custody
  • Upgrade an account to better rates/features
  • Change the address records the bank holds for the Donor/Granter
    Attorneys will not be allowed to take additional credit or authorise a third party to operate the Donor/Granter’s account on their behalf.
  • Local authority and charities.
    If you are a third party (local authority or charity) setting up representative access and are looking to set up the local authority access, this is allowed only on personal accounts so please get in touch with our retail team on 0345 300 0071.

Plan your next steps

Follow our step by step guide to help you register a trusted person to manage your business account.

Trusted person registration about how to register someone to manage your business account.
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