Appoint someone you trust to manage your pension and make decisions on your behalf.
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?
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.
Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for Scotland
Your single information point about financial provisions contained in the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000.
How we can help
If you have Power of Attorney and are acting on behalf of one of our customers.
Before you can act on behalf of one of our customers you need to send us:
- A certified copy of the original Power of Attorney document or an access code, so we can view the Power of Attorney online.
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.
- 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).
- A copy of your passport or driving licence for us to verify your identity.
- 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, Sunderland, SR43 4JU.
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 you need to act on behalf of one of our customers, but don’t have Power of Attorney
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 |