Banks fail to deal with power of attorney requests

Banks are failing to handle power of attorney requests effectively, and as a result are causing unnecessary stress for customers, the Scotsman has recently reported.

A power of attorney (POA) is a legal document that allows someone to grant authority to a person they to trust to manage their affairs should they lose the capacity to do so themselves. It can be granted or revoked at any time, while the granter has the mental capacity to do.

There has apparently been a 10% increase in the number of POAs registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland) between 2010 and 2013. However, despite this rise, banks and building societies still appear to lack understanding of POAs and how to deal with them.

As a result, around 35 complaints a month are made by consumers to the Financial Ombudsman Service about their bank’s failure to handle a POA appropriately, reports the Scotsman.

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