Robust due diligence is an important part of ensuring that you fully understand an individual’s financial affairs. Funds or accounts can be become lost for several reasons and online accounts can make fact-finds more difficult. However, increasingly of concern is failure to disclose assets or even attempts made by family or friends to either conceal accounts, as in a case we recently encountered.
The Person (P) had lost capacity as result of a brain injury in the late 1990’s. Her son took up the position of Deputy managing her financial affairs and after the death of P’s husband, the entire family moved overseas. Twenty years on her needs became more complicated and the family moved P back to the UK. In doing so the Deputy, her son, sensibly renounced his Deputyship and with no other family in the UK, a Panel Deputy was appointed.
The son provided very little information to the newly appointed Panel Deputy and with P having been overseas for 20 years there was very limited information regarding her finances or even personal details such as past addresses. The Panel Deputy asked for our help and instructed an Estatesearch Financial Profile report to help understand P’s financial affairs better.
Owing to the lengthy period overseas, there were limited accounts in existence. However, our report identified an active annuity with a pension provider. Some suspicions were raised when it was indicated previous payments being made to an unknown account. Nevertheless, The Panel Deputy was duly notified and assumed control of the assets redirecting payments accordingly.
Two weeks later the pension provider, contacted the Panel Deputy, to alert them they had received an unusual email asking why the annuity payments had stopped. The enquiry had originated from the son, who had previously reported that he knew of no assets.
We have all seen matters where family or friends, in their capacity as Deputy, Attorney or simply as a friend, may redirect correspondence or payments, often with the best intentions to help make it easier for them to provide care and support. Financial abuse may not be the intention, but these informal arrangements can often be overlooked or develop into more serious issues such as in the case above. Our Financial Profile service includes notification of P’s status to a wide range of financial institutions, giving Professional Deputies confidence in the fullness of their understanding of P’s finances.
To find out more about how we are helping professional deputies and attorneys with financial due diligence get in touch