Power of attorney - Frequently asked questions

A POA is a legal document that appoints one or more people (attorney/s) to make decisions for you (the donor).

A donor is an individual who wishes to give another person/people the authority to act or make decisions on their behalf.

An attorney is a person/people appointed to look after the finances and property or health and welfare of another person.

Please see our section on the options that will be available in this situation.

The same process applies as if an individual has been appointed.

'Jointly' means that all the Attorneys must act together at all times. 'Jointly and severally' (sometimes referred to as 'jointly and individually') means that the attorneys can either act individually or together.

A Court of Protection Order can be issued when someone loses mental capacity and there is no Lasting Power of Attorney or Enduring Power of Attorney in existence. Further information can be found at Court of protection.

A deputy is a person appointed by the Court of Protection to manage the affairs of someone who lacks the mental capacity to manage their own affairs. Further information can be found at Court of protection.

A controller is a person appointed by the Office of Care and Protection to manage the affairs of someone who lacks the mental capacity to manage their own affairs. Further information can be found at Office of care and protection (Northern Ireland).

No, there is no cost for registering a power of attorney with us.

We will need to see the full POA document - either the original, or a copy which has been certified (see important documents). We will also need to verify the identity and address details of each attorney wishing to be registered with us. We may be able to do this electronically, and each attorney should complete a POA authority form to be returned to us with the POA document. However, if we’re unable to verify any details electronically, we’ll contact you with a list of acceptable forms of ID and address verification.

Please refer to our help us identify you page.

We will send a confirmation letter to both the donor and the ‘main’ attorney.

We will send a confirmation letter to the 'main' attorney.

We do accept foreign power of attorney documents, but each decision to accept a foreign power of attorney is taken on a 'case by case' basis. You would need to provide the original POA document in the foreign language and also have a translation done, which would need to be stamped by a notary.

We will need to comply with any restrictions which are stated in the document. It may take a little longer to register with us as we may need to request additional information. This may also mean that, as an attorney, you cannot access all of our services (such as Telephone Banking, Internet Banking).

Yes. The donor can appoint more than one attorney, and must specify whether they are to act 'jointly' (i.e. together) or 'jointly and severally' (i.e. together or individually). It is worth noting that if attorneys are appointed to act 'jointly' they won't be able to have access to Telephone Banking or Internet Banking. If, on the other hand, attorneys are appointed to act ‘jointly and severally’, the donor would be able to choose and appoint one of their attorneys to have access to the above services.

You can apply for Internet Banking once our records have been updated to include the POA. Internet Banking and/or Telephone Banking will be accessible to you, as an attorney, as long as you are the sole attorney or, if there are multiple attorneys, as long as the POA requires them to be able to act ‘jointly and severally’ and indicates who should have day-to-day access to these services. With a general power of attorney, Internet Banking cannot be provided.

To sign-in to Internet Banking services the POA will need to have access to either of the following security devices:

• Physical M&S PASS - only one physical PASS can be assigned to the customer account, therefore the POA would need to have access to the security device and associated customer security details.
• Digital M&S PASS - up to 3 digital passes can be assigned to the customer account, therefore the POA could download and setup the Digital M&S PASS to their compatible device (smartphone / tablet) or access the account via the customers digital device. The POA would also need to know the associated customer security details to setup or access the Digital M&S PASS.

Some types of power of attorney remain valid if the donor becomes mentally incapable. Please see our power of attorney page for further information. For further information on mental capacity and what can be done once a donor loses mental capacity, please refer to our mental capacity section.

The POA would be cancelled as would the authority of any attorneys. For more information on what happens to accounts following a bereavement, see our bereavement support section.