Managing someone else’s money

Sometimes people need help managing their money and there are several ways you can do this.

Someone might need help managing their money due to a health condition or because they need support with their spending.

There are a number of ways to do this, from a temporary third party mandate to granting someone Power of Attorney. Both give you access to their bank account and the right to operate it.

Whatever we do to help, our customer is our number one priority and we make sure that protections are in place to keep them and their money safe.

Types of third party access

Power of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a legal document that someone can arrange, which allows a third party to manage their finances if they’re unable to do so.

This gives you more control over what happens to them and their finances in advance, in case they have an accident or an illness and need support with their banking.

Find out more about what a Power of Attorney can do and how to register one with us by visiting our dedicated page.

Learn about Power of Attorney

Court of Protection Order

If someone loses their 'mental capacity', a Court of Protection Order can be applied if there’s not a Power of Attorney already in place. The third party will apply on the individual's behalf in order to manage their money.

Find out about what a Court of Protection Order allows you to do and how to register one with us by visiting our dedicated page.

Learn about Court of Protection

Third party mandate

A third party mandate is a temporary agreement between first direct and our customer, which gives someone else (a third party) limited access to our customer’s bank account.

No legal document is required for this, however, the customer must have mental capacity when a third party mandate is used on their account.

Find out how to set up a first direct third party mandate and what this allows you to do by visiting our dedicated page.

Learn about third party mandate

What different types of third party do?

	Thid party mandate	Ordinary Power of Attorney	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
You need help managing your accounts	Thid party mandate✓	Ordinary Power of Attorney✓	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)✓	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)✓	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
You're going abroad and need someone to access your accounts while you're away	Thid party mandate✓	Ordinary Power of Attorney✓	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)✓	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)✓	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
You're physically ill or disabled	Thid party mandate✓	Ordinary Power of Attorney✓	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)✓	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)✓	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
You're preparing incase you lose the ability to manage your money	Thid party mandate	Ordinary Power of Attorney	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)✓	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)✓	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
You've lost the ability to manage your money	Thid party mandate	Ordinary Power of Attorney	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) ✓ If prepared before losing capacity	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007) ✓ If prepared before losing capacity.	Court of Protection Order ✓ If Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) or Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) hasn’t already been granted	Guardianship order for missing persons
You need support for day-to-day banking, for a limited time, but not for someone to make decisions for you	Thid party mandate✓	Ordinary Power of Attorney	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons
The customer is a missing person	Thid party mandate	Ordinary Power of Attorney	Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)	Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) (only valid if written and signed before 01 Oct 2007)	Court of Protection Order	Guardianship order for missing persons✓

Having mental capacity means that someone is able to make and communicate their own decisions.

Someone who’s lacking mental capacity could be suffering from an illness or living with a disability, meaning they can’t do one or more of the following:

understand information given to them about a particular decision
retain information long enough to make a decision
weigh up information to make a decision
communicate their decision.

For more information on understanding mental capacity head to nhs.uk Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].

If a person goes missing you can apply to the Court of Protection for a guardianship order. This allows you to manage the property and financial affairs of the missing person.

For more information on guardianship orders head to gov.uk Opens an overlay [Will show a security message first].

To tell us you have a guardianship order, give us a call on 03 456 100 100.

first direct customers can let us know about an emergency contact that we can get in touch with in special circumstances.

This could be if they’re not ready to register a Power of Attorney, or if they want to make sure we have the details for family or friends in case of an emergency.

The emergency contact won’t have any access to the customer’s accounts or be able to make any decisions on their behalf.

Our customers have rights regarding their information, including being able to see what we hold about them. For more information please see our full privacy notice.

Managing someone else’s money

Helping those who need it

Types of third party access

Power of Attorney

Court of Protection Order

Third party mandate

What different types of third party do?

What do we mean by 'mental capacity'?

Guardianship order for missing persons

Emergency contact

You might also be interested in

Your support needs

Mental health & support

Life events