Assisting someone with their money

An ordinary/general/specific power of attorney is a legal document that appoints one or more people (your attorney/s) to make financial decisions for you, and to carry out everyday transactions on your behalf.

• This type of power is automatically cancelled (revoked) if the customer (donor) loses mental capacity.
• A general power of attorney applies to all of your financial affairs.
• An ordinary/specific power of attorney can be limited to specific affairs.
• To find out what your attorney can do, see our 'what a third party can do' page.

How to apply

• If you want to set up an ordinary/general/specific power of attorney, you should contact your local Citizen's Advice or Office of Public Guardian, (Office of Care and Protection in Northern Ireland or Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland) or get advice from a solicitor as there is a standard form of wording that must be used.
• Once you have your power of attorney assigned you will need to register your power of attorney with M&S Bank.

A lasting power of attorney or an enduring power of attorney applies to customers residing in England and Wales and is a legal document that appoints one or more people (your attorney/s) to make financial decisions for you, and to carry out everyday transactions on your behalf.

An enduring power of attorney is available for customers residing in Northern Ireland and a continuing power of attorney is available for customers residing in Scotland.

• You must be 18 or over and have mental capacity at the point of application
• You may wish to choose this option if you're planning ahead for a time when you'd like someone you know to make decisions on your behalf.
• Lasting and continuing powers of attorney must be registered with the relevant Office of the Public Guardian for your jurisdiction before it can be used. These type of powers remain valid even if you lose mental capacity.
• If you hold an enduring power of attorney issued in England or Wales, and lose mental capacity, you will need to get it registered with the relevant Office of the Public Guardian for your jurisdiction for it to remain valid. This does not apply to enduring power of attorneys issued in Northern Ireland.
• To find out what your attorney can do, see our 'what a third party can do' page.

How to apply

• Contact the Office of Public Guardian (Office of Care and Protection in Northern Ireland or Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland) to get the relevant forms and an information pack. You can download the forms or fill them out online.
• Once you have your power of attorney assigned you will need to register your power of attorney with M&S Bank.

In the event that you lose mental capacity and do not have an appropriate power of attorney in place, the Office of Public Guardian may allocate a Court of Protection order to manage your affairs on your behalf. The Department of Work and Pensions may also allocate an appointee to act on your behalf. For more information, you can visit the relevant Office of Public Guardian (Office of Care and Protection in Northern Ireland or Office of the Public Guardian in Scotland) website.

You could apply for a guardianship order if you want to be appointed as a guardian for someone who has gone missing.

When might you choose this option?

You might consider a guardianship order if you are a relative or close friend of someone who has gone missing, and you believe it would be in their best interest if you were appointed to manage their property and financial affairs.
The act applies in england and wales only. There are no directly equivalent provisions in scotland and northern ireland. You'll find more information on the guardianship (missing persons) act 2017 at gov.uk

This third party mandate can only be used for the M&S Everyday Savings Account.

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A third party mandate is a formal instruction from you to M&S Bank. It tells us that you’d like someone else to carry out everyday transactions on your M&S Bank Everyday Savings Account (ESA) account.

These don't include opening or closing an account for you.

You might consider this option if you need help managing your accounts, for convenience or because you don’t have access to them.

For example, if you're recovering from an operation you might want someone to transfer money to your linked current account to pay a bill.

You can register a power of attorney or Court of Protection order via an online form if:

• you are the sole attorney or deputy or can act jointly and severally on behalf of the donor.
• you are registering a lasting power of attorney, ordinary (general) power of attorney, enduring power of attorney, Scottish powers, Northern Ireland enduring power or a Court of Protection order.

To complete the registration you will need:

• your personal and contact details
• the donor’s details
• to upload all pages of the original document (or all pages of the certified copy of the original) along with any supporting document(s)

Please note: If registering a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) with us, you can provide an LPA access code as an alternative to uploading images of the document. This will provide us with a summary of your LPA. Access codes are 13 characters long and start with a V.

You can use this service if:

• the LPA was registered with the Office of the Public Guardian in England or Wales on or after 17 July 2020
• the donor is an existing M&S Bank customer
• the LPA doesn’t contain specific instructions or preferences

To obtain your LPA access code, please visit www.gov.uk/use-lpa, and follow the instructions. Each code is valid for 30 days. If your code has expired please obtain a new one from the Office of the Public Guardian.

There may be a delay in the registration if:

• the document is illegible or obscured
• there are pages missing
• a copy has not been correctly certified

Our specialist team will check the documents and may ask for additional information if there are any special restrictions/conditions.

Once we’ve updated our records and set up the power of attorney on the account/s, we’ll send out a confirmation letter to your attorney.

Alternatively, you can send certified copies of the power of attorney documents issued by the Office of Public Guardian or your solicitor. The document must be officially certified on each page by you (the donor) if you are mentally capable otherwise by a solicitor, a notary public, a member of the Council for Licensed Conveyancers or a member of the Chartered Institute of Legal Executives (CILEX).

We will also require a completed and signed power of attorney authority form for each attorney to be added to the account.

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Please send these to:

M&S Bank, PO Box 327, Wymondham, NR18 8GY

Our specialist team will check the documents and may ask for additional information if there are any special restrictions/conditions.

Once we've updated our records and set up the power of attorney on the account/accounts, we'll send out a confirmation letter to your 'main' attorney.