My brother with learning disabilities is about to be moved out from the care home he has lived in for 30 years. They have managed his finances through a corporate appointee during this time. Now we have been asked by his Social Worker if a family member wants to take on the appointeeship. We have been advised that “If no family member wishes to be (his) appointee, I will need to make a referral to (the local authority) Customer Financial Affairs Service, who act as appointees for people in (the area) who lack capacity and do not have a family member or friend who can assume the role”. We are not sure if we want to take this on and if it’s just extra unnecessary work if the Financial Affairs Service areable to take on the role. We are unaware of the advantages or disadvantages either way. We are reaching out to experienced appointees for advice about this. Please let us know about this, your help will be much appreciated 
@Niceff good morning niceff , I hope that you are having a nice day. I don’t really know a lot about what you are asking because I just take care of myself. But I know there are a lot of people on here dealing with your situation. They will know all the advantages and disadvantages and will be able to give you advice and answer your questions. I’ve just replied to say hello, and hope you are having a nice day .then other people will see my message who will be able to give you all the help and advice.take care.
Amazing Teddy Bear, thanks so much for your thoughtful comments and I’ll wait for any more responses from the group members 
There advantages and disadvantages.
Is he moving to a care home, or “supported living”?
Has the “corporate appointee” ever shared anything about his finances with you?
How far away from you will he be? Do you see much of him now? Will visiting him in the new place be easy or difficult?
Hi Bowlingbun, thanks for responding. Here’s my answers:
@Niceff Rather than ask lots of questions, I’ll just ask one.
What do you want to do about it?
Your brother’s finances have been managed by others for the last however long, and the fact is that he has very little to actually manage. You can go through the hoops to sort it out, or you can let the council deal with it. If you’re already loaded up with other things to deal with, why add to it?
The advantage of doing this is that the council takes responsibility as a service, which can be dealt with by whoever is available at the time. The disadvantage of you doing it is that if you take it on and fall ill, no one else can deal with it until the arrangements have been made for someone else to take over. The council will always be there - you will not.
In that case, as he will be near you, I’d suggest you become appointee. If you don’t like it, then the LA can take over. it means that your brother will be able to have a choice in things he wouldn’t otherwise have. It will only be £30 per week personal spending plus his extra money is he has the element of PIP for getting around. Otherwise the money may just be frittered away.
M is in supported living so more money involved, but he likes me being able to take him out and get things I know he likes. Once a member of staff I’d trusted to buy him some new shoes, he takes 11G, bought some size 10 for him as they didn’t have the larger size. I was so annoyed by this, as I’ve taken infinite care to make sure he had well fitting shoes all his life. I soon discovered in one place that the Gore Tex shoes disappeared - I ended up taking the labels off! Staff are also useless at ensuring shoes are repaired. We went away one week and I told him to bring both pairs of GT shoes with him. In the pouring rain he said his feet were wet. They were Goretex but they needed gluing at the front. I said never mind, you’ve got the black ones with you at the cottage. Bother me, they too needed gluing. So in the end I drove from Watchet where we were staying to Street in Somerset to get him new Goretex shoes!!!
Thanks Charlesh47
I guess my answer is that I want to make an informed decision
My sister looked after and supported mum for many years before she died. During this time she had to assist mum to manage direct payments for her care. It was a lot to take on and we are reluctant to get into this level of involvement, so are trying to find out if it’s the same level of work.
We also want to try to understand if the LA will actually do a reasonable job of it if we leave it to them. We wondered if someone might have had a good or bad experience about this which might give us a bit more insight one way or another.
Thanks Bowlingbun,
What I hear from what you’ve said is that the quality and level of personal support cannot be matched by outsourcing the role to the local authority.
Thanks, it’s a good point and I understand what you mean and will take that into consideration 
@Niceff personally if it was me I would do what bowlinghun has said I would be his appointee.Then you would know where the money is going and you would be able to buy him nice things with his money that you know he would like. But that is if you have the time to help him. I take care and look after myself and I doubt that will ever change .but if it ever does I hope that my family will do it. That is what I am looking into at the moment. I suppose it comes down to. Do you have the time and would not mind helping him. And taking on this role. Take care.
Thinking about this some more, definitely do this, even for a short time so hopefully you can check that the corporate appointee has done the job properly.
Income every week, how was it spent, what on, etc. most importantly how much remains in your brother’s account! A friend of my son had his post office savings book completely emptied by a corporate appointee.
@bowlingbun you are right, he has wrote above that in the past they have never been given any financial information at all by the person who was sorting this in the past. So how do they know in the past what the money has been spent on.
Thank you Bowlingbun, I really appreciate your input and experience. I can see that doing the appointeeship is a better more personalised way of handling my brothers money. I can also understand that it’s safer too. This has helped me to make the right decision and at least try it out. I’ve also learned elsewhere that it’s not as rigorous as managing Direct Payments which is also pointing me towards taking on the appointeeship. Many thanks for your input!
Thanks Teddybear, you and Bowlingbun have got me over the line. Much appreciated!
@Niceff you are very welcome, come back and let us know how you are doing. You know your brother you know what he likes. When you visit him he will be able to either tell you what he needs or you will be able to see what he needs from your visit and also get him things he likes. Also as bowlinghun suggested you could ask for passed financial information so you can see what the corporate appointee has been doing in the past and that it is correct. Have a nice day and take care.