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Powers of Attorney: General Power of Attorney
A power of attorney is a legal document which allows you to appoint a third party or parties to act on your behalf with regards to your property and or financial affairs.
At present, there are two types of Power of Attorney:
- General Power of Attorney
- Lasting Power of Attorney
This section deals with the General Power of Attorney
Who can Grant the Power of Attorney
A person who grants a power of attorney is referred to as a 'Donor'. The persons appointed by the Donor to act on his/her behalf is known as an 'Attorney'. Anyone can grant a power of attorney provided they have mental capacity to do so and can only grant powers to do things which they themselves have the right and capacity to do.
Children under the age of 18 can also grant a power of attorney. However, the child can only grant powers to do things that they can do themselves and it is recommended that legal advice be sought where a child wishes to grant an general power of attorney.
An General Power of Attorney should NOT be entered into where the Donor has been diagnosed with a mental degenerative illness or the donor believes that such illness may develop. In these circumstances, an Enduring Power of attorney is recommended.
Who can be an Attorney?
Anyone possessing mental capacity can be appointed as an attorney and more than one attorney can be appointed. Where this is the case, the attorneys can be instructed to act jointly, severally or jointly and severally.
Joint Attorneys
Joint attorneys must always act together. The benefit is that fraud and inappropriate acts are limited and less likely. The disadvantage is that if one attorney dies or becomes mentally incapable the entire Power of Attorney comes to an end.
Jointly & Severally
If the attorneys are appointed jointly and severally, they may act together or alone. This avoids the above disadvantage.
Duties of an Attorney
Appointment as an attorney is one of trust and the attorney must act in the best interests of the donor who appointed him/her. The attorney can only do things which the donor has authorised and cannot delegate responsibilities unless the power specifically provides that he or she can do so.
An attorney must keep separate up-to-date accounts of all transactions and conduct conducted on behalf of the donor. Where the attorney has to sign documents when acting on the donor's behalf he or she should sign their name and follow it with the words 'Attorney for.....(name donor)'.
How to Grant an General Power of Attorney
An general power of attorney can be general or specific and for a set period of time (during donor's prolonged vacation) or until the donor decides to revoke it. If the power is restricted to specific tasks only, this needs to be specifically indicated in the document.
An general power of attorney does not need to be registered with the Public Guardianship office. In order to be effective copies of the power simply need to be forwarded to the relevant parties i.e. banks, building societies so that they know that the attorney is authorised to act on the donor's behalf.
Revocation
A General Power of Attorney can be revoked at any time by the Donor. If the donor becomes mentally incapacitated the power of attorney is automatically revoked.
Where revoking a power of attorney, the attorney/s should be notified in writing as well as the various institutions.
