Power of Attorney & Court of Protection Orders

Power of Attorney is a written authority granted by one individual (donor) to another individual (attorney) to deal with the donor’s ‘Financial and Property Affairs’ and/or ‘Health and Welfare’. The donor can nominate one or more attorney(s) to act on their behalf. Power of Attorney can only be granted when a person still has mental capacity. An Order from Court of Protection may be required where mental capacity has been lost.

The most common ways for someone to act on your behalf are:

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
The appointed person (the attorney) can manage someone’s finances if this person (the donor) requires support and may allow the attorney to continue managing the affairs if in the future they are unable to make decisions for themselves. We only need to see the ‘Property & Financial Affairs’ document, we don’t need the ‘Health & Welfare’ document.

The donor or attorney can apply for POA online by visiting the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).
Alternatively, the donor or attorney can instruct a solicitor to assist with the application. Once the application has been completed it will need to be submitted to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for registration (we will only accept LPA if it has been registered with the OPG).

Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA)
If you have an unregistered EPA (these were replaced with LPAs in October 2007), we still accept EPAs but the attorney(s) must register the EPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) if they believe the person's (donor) accounts they are operating on behalf of are, or are becoming, mentally incapable.

Court of Protection Order
If a Power of Attorney is not in place but you need to manage someone else’s affairs who doesn’t have the ability to make decisions for themselves, a court order may be needed to grant you with authority to manage their affairs. This would involve applying to become a deputy for the person through the Court of Protection (COP). More information can be found at www.gov.uk/become-deputy

These are the most common types of authority for someone to act on behalf another individual, however we do accept others. Please contact us for more information.

What we need:

The Donor

If the donor is already a member:

• The original or a certified copy of the Power of Attorney document or the Court of Protection Order
• The donor’s passbook(s) if there is one

If the donor is not a member:

• If the donor is new to the Society, we need them to provide two forms of identification, one for name verification and another for address verification included in the table in the Your Information leaflet.
• The original or a certified copy of the Power of Attorney document or the Court of Protection Order

The Attorney/Deputy

• Two forms of identification will be required from the attorney/deputy, one for name verification and one for address verification, irrespective of whether or not they are an existing member.  Please refer to the table in the Your Information leaflet.
• If a Solicitor has been instructed to act as an Attorney or been appointed as a Deputy we will need them to send us a letter confirming this on their headed paper, a practising certificate, or one form of name identification included in the table in the Your Information leaflet.

If you are registering a Power of Attorney with us, the Principality Power of Attorney Declaration must be completed and signed by the Attorney(s). This Declaration is not required for a Court of Protection Order. If you are unable to download or print a copy of the Power of Attorney Declaration, you can request a copy by calling us on 0330 333 4000 or emailing us at enquiries@principality.co.uk.

You can register by:

• Attending a branch appointment. Call your local branch or send us a request to book a branch appointment
• Posting the declaration form and your Power of Attorney/Court of Protection document to the address below:
  Specialist Customer Support,
  Principality Building Society,
  PO Box 89,
  Queen Street,
  Cardiff,
  CF10 1UA
• Emailing the declaration form, your Power of Attorney/Court of Protection document and certified identification to identification@principality.co.uk
  Identification documents will be accepted via email if they are, where applicable, certified as a true copy of the original by a solicitor, a registered accountant, bank official or an individual regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority and Prudential Regulation Authority. The certification must state ‘’I certify that this is a true copy of the original document which I have witnessed’’ – and must include the certifiers name, address, position, employer or firm, with signature and date. The Power of Attorney document does not need to be certified.

If you would like any further information, please contact us.

Attorney: The person who has been authorised to act on someone else’s (donor’s) behalf under a Power of Attorney.

Donor: The owner of the funds who has granted permission to attorneys to act on their behalf under a Power of Attorney.

Deputy: A person appointed by the Court of Protection (COP) to look after a person’s affairs.

Court of Protection (COP): A specialist court which has the power to make decisions on financial matters for people who can’t make decisions at the time they need to be made (they ‘lack mental capacity’). A deputy can be appointed through the COP where a person is unable to grant authority.

To apply to be a deputy over someone’s affairs please visit the GOV.UK website on becoming a deputy.