A Power of Attorney allows you to let someone else manage your account on your behalf. This could be in the short-term, for example if you’re in hospital or recovering from an illness, or if you’re in a position where you can no longer or may not want to make your own decisions.
When you’re ready, you can complete the ‘Add an attorney, deputy or representative’ form and we can support you with the next steps for your account.
A Power of Attorney (POA) is a legal document that allows someone to make decisions for you, or act on your behalf. If you become unwell or unable to make financial decisions, you can appoint someone you trust as your attorney (representative) and they can help you access information about your account or manage it for you.
You should consider speaking to someone, like a family member, friend, or a professional such as your solicitor or accountant, before deciding what to do.
There are several options available depending on your circumstances.
Informal access to your account
General Power of Attorney
Lasting Power of Attorney
Court of Protection Order
|
Informal access to your account |
General Power of Attorney |
Lasting Power of Attorney |
Court of Protection Order |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Just need some help checking the balance and transactions on your account |
✓ |
X |
X |
X |
|
Want someone to help manage your account while you’re still able to make financial decisions |
X |
✓ |
✓ |
X |
|
Are preparing for the future when you won’t be able to make financial decisions |
X |
X |
✓ |
X |
|
Are applying for power of attorney for someone who’s no longer able to make financial decisions |
X |
X |
X |
✓ |
General Power of Attorney (GPOA) – UK
This might be helpful if you want to allow someone else to help you manage your Marcus account and the money in it. You will still be able to manage your account yourself.
If you would like to create a new a General Power of Attorney for use with your Marcus account, you can download our template here.
The representative would be able to:
• Add money to and withdraw money from your account
• Unlock your account
• Change any of the details on your account, including your address
• Close your account.
A General Power of Attorney is only valid while you’re still able to make your own financial decisions.
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) – England and Wales
This might be helpful if you’re preparing for a time when you may no longer be able to make your own financial decisions and want to allow someone to manage your money and Marcus account for you.
The representative would be able to:
• Add money to and withdraw money from your account
• Unlock your account
• Change any of the details on your account, including your address
• Close your account
As long as you’re able to make financial decisions, you’ll still be able to manage your account yourself too. If a time comes when you’re no longer able to make decisions yourself, a Lasting Power of Attorney means your representative can take care of your account for you.
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA):
1. Property and financial affairs
2. Health and welfare
Please note, we cannot accept a health and welfare LPA.
Donors and attorneys with LPAs registered from 17 July 2020 will be able to use the online government service here to generate a secure access code which, when shared with us will mean we can view a summary of the LPA. The access code is only valid for 30 days, but after expiry a new code can be generated. You will need to include the access code on the ‘Add an attorney, deputy or representative’ form.
If the account holder is no longer able to make their own decisions, the representative can’t apply to be Lasting Power of Attorney.
Remember, a LPA document must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before we can accept it. LPA has been replaced by Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA). Only EPAs made and signed before October 2007 can still be used.
We also accept documents from Scotland and Northern Ireland, if you have any questions please give us a call.
Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) – England and Wales
EPAs are no longer granted as they were replaced by property and financial affairs lasting powers of attorney (LPAs). Only EPAs made and signed before October 2007 can still be used.
We do accept existing EPAs and they would allow a representative to:
• Add money to and withdraw money from your account
• Unlock your account
• Change any of the details on your account, including your address
• Close your account
Unlike LPAs, if you still have mental capacity, an EPA does not need to be registered by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). If anything changes, then it will need to be registered with the OPG before we can accept.
Court of Protection order (COP)
If the account holder is no longer able to make their own financial decisions and doesn’t have valid Power of Attorney already in place, you’ll need a Court of Protection Order to manage their finances.
This is a legal document provided by the Court of Protection, and they’ll decide who should have this responsibility, and what that person is able to do.
For more information, see the Court of Protection website.
You should think about appointing someone you trust who can act in the best way for you. They should be someone you trust and who has the skills to carry out the role. You could think about appointing a spouse, child, family member, friend or a solicitor.
Your attorney(s) will have to be 18 or over.
Yes, you can have multiple attorneys.
If you appoint more than one attorney, you must decide how you want them to act. There are a few ways they can make decisions:
You can set up authority for someone to help manage your existing account or, you might be a representative opening an account for someone on their behalf.
Opening an account on behalf of someone else:
You’ll have to call us to open an account on behalf of someone else. We’ll arrange for one of our team to call you within 5 business days to make the application on their behalf over the telephone. The application call usually takes around 30 minutes, and we’ll let you know which documents you need to send so we can get you added to the account.
To be added as authority on an existing account:
You’ll need to complete the ‘add an attorney, deputy or representative form’ and have any supporting documentation ready. Depending on if the account holder does have mental capacity there are two different ways to get the form to us:
This will depend on the type of access you’re looking to set up. We’ll always need you to complete one of our forms:
If you have an LPA document that was registered on or after 17 July 2020, then we can accept an access code so we can view the document. Please add the code to ‘Add an attorney, deputy or representative’ form below. You can generate your access code here and they are only valid for 30 days at a time.
If you can’t find what you need online, one of our Customer Care Team members can guide you. Our lines are open from 8am - 8pm, Monday to Friday (excluding bank holidays).