Setting up and registering a Power of Attorney

What is a Power of Attorney?

A Power of Attorney (PoA) is a legal document that provides the people you trust with the authority to make decisions and act on your behalf, in the event that you lose capacity to act for yourself.

Those that you appoint are called ’attorneys’. You can appoint one or more ‘attorneys’ and they are usually your spouse/partner, sibling, friend or extended family member. These should be people that you know well and trust, as appointed attorneys have a great deal of power to act on your behalf and make decisions for you.

There are different types of Power of Attorney, and depending on where you live, they can have a different name too.

Location	Name of PoA	Purpose
England and Wales	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)	Health and welfare
England and Wales	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)	Property and financial affairs
Scotland	Continuing Power of Attorney	Money and property
Scotland	Welfare Power of Attorney	Health and welfare
Scotland	Combined Power of Attorney	both financial and welfare decisions
All	Ordinary/General Power of Attorney	Temporary – financial affairs

Why should a Power of Attorney be set up?

In the event you can't make legal and/or financial decisions for yourself, having a Power of Attorney in place provides you and your loved ones with the peace of mind that your money, health and welfare can be looked after on your behalf.

If you lose capacity to manage your own affairs as a result of, for example, old age, illness, accidents, struggles with dementia or mental health, your Attorney(s) can take over either temporarily (until you regain capacity again) or permanently (if you're not expected to regain capacity).

When should a Power of Attorney be set up?

You can set up a Power of Attorney at any time. This is a way of ensuring that your finances, health and welfare will be taken care of in case you're unable to manage these yourself. Everyone can benefit from setting up a Power of Attorney.

Setting up a Power of Attorney

Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for England & Wales

Get help on how to stay in control of decisions about your health and finance, and make important decisions for others who can't decide for themselves.

OPG England & Wales

Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for Scotland

Your single information point about financial provisions contained in the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.

OPG Scotland

How we can help

Before you can act on behalf of one of our customers you need to send us:

1. The original Power of Attorney document or a certified paper copy of it.

We accept:

Powers of Attorney that cover finances and property.
A Combined Power of Attorney.

We can’t accept:

Powers of Attorney that cover just health or welfare.

2. An accompanying cover letter with the following information

any reference numbers relevant to our customer and their policy/policies
your details (name, address, contact information)
the details of our customer (name, address, any previous address if they’ve recently moved).

3. The original or certified paper copy of the Certificate of Registration (if the Power of Attorney doesn't have any registration markings on it).

Please send your documents to: Prudential, Lancing, BN15 8GB.

We’ll take good care of your original documents and/or copies. If you send them to us by Special Delivery or Recorded Delivery, we’ll send them back the same way.

Once we’ve received the Power of Attorney, we’ll

verify your Power of Attorney
ensure the Power of Attorney document has a witness signature (all types must have a witness signature)
check that it’s registered (if applicable)
validate your details and confirm your identity
validate the details and identities of any other appointed attorneys
check the details of the customer who’s appointed you.

We might need to ask you for other documentation so that we can conclude our ID and verification checks, but if that’s the case, we’ll let you know.

If our customer doesn't have capacity and there's no Power of Attorney in place that names you as the Attorney, we won't be able to discuss the customers' details or take instructions from you. Please refer to the relevant Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) or seek independent legal advice for assistance in relation to deputyship (in England & Wales) or guardianship (in Scotland) orders.

If our customer is still able to make informed decisions, it’s for them to set up a Power of Attorney.

If they’re no longer able to do that, then a Court Order will be required to grant you or another, the relevant Power of Attorney. The necessary Court Order will have a different name depending on where you are and what you need to take control of:

Location	Name of Court Order	Purpose
England and Wales	Deputy Order	to handle the customer's affairs on an ongoing basis
England and Wales	Interim Order	for urgent one-off actions or decisions
Scotland	Guardianship Order	to handle the customer's affairs on an ongoing basis
Scotland	Intervention Order	for urgent one-off actions or decisions

We offer more information on the above, here.

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"Prudential" is a trading name of Prudential Distribution Limited. Prudential Distribution Limited is registered in Scotland. Registered Office at 5 Central Way, Kildean Business Park, Stirling, FK8 1FT. Registered number SC212640. Authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority. Prudential Distribution Limited is part of the same corporate group as the Prudential Assurance Company Limited. The Prudential Assurance Company Limited and Prudential Distribution Limited are direct/indirect subsidiaries of M&G plc which is a holding company registered in England and Wales with registered number 11444019 and registered office at 10 Fenchurch Avenue, London EC3M 5AG, some of whose subsidiaries are authorised and regulated, as applicable, by the Prudential Regulation Authority and the Financial Conduct Authority. These companies are not affiliated in any manner with Prudential Financial, Inc, a company whose principal place of business is in the United States of America or Prudential plc, an international group incorporated in the United Kingdom.