The thought of being in a situation where you cannot make your own decisions is very daunting, but having that one person, or people, that you trust dearly to help you in these uncertain times may just give you the reassurance that you need.
Making Lasting Powers of Attorney is not often at the forefront of people’s minds and their importance can be greatly overlooked, but for some people, they really do prove to be invaluable.
You may think that your spouse, partner or family members would be able to deal with your financial affairs and make medical related decisions on your behalf if you were not able to do so yourself. However, without having the correct document in place, this is not always the case.
There are two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA); one is for property and financial affairs, and the other is for health and welfare decisions.
With these LPAs you can choose attorneys i.e. trusted family members, friends or even a professional (for property and financial affairs only). These attorneys must be over the age of 18 and not declared bankrupt. It is important that you appoint attorneys that you trust implicitly to make the right decisions on your behalf and, ideally, people that know you well enough to enable them to do so.
If in the future you become ill, have an accident, or lose mental capacity, having the correct LPAs in place will enable your appointed attorneys to step in and assist you with anything required. This could include managing your personal finances i.e. taking care of your household bills, selling your property or making decisions regarding your care.
For further information please read our Powers of Attorney guide.
General Power of Attorney
A general power of attorney allows you to appoint someone to act on your behalf for a short period of time or for a limited purpose. This may be useful if you are going away for an extended period, or if you are in need of assistance whilst you wait for your LPA to be registered.
If you would like any more information, please get in touch for a free initial consultation with a member of our experienced Private Client Team.
If, by the time your LPAs were needed i.e. you had lost mental capacity, you would no longer be able to make an LPA. This can only be done whilst you have sufficient mental capacity. Without them in place, your family would need to apply to the Court of Protection for the authority to manage your affairs which can be extremely costly and very time consuming.
In addition to this, LPAs can take several months to be executed and registered. It is best to get them in place as soon as possible so that they are in place for if and when they are needed.
You can appoint as many attorneys as you would like to, but most frequently people appoint one to four attorneys. It is also possible to appoint replacement attorneys, to step in when some or all your attorneys can no longer act.
No. You can indicate whether you would want your attorneys to act together (jointly) or whether they can act independently as well as together (joint and several). This is preferred by most and particularly useful if one of your attorneys is not available when needed i.e. they are overseas, or if they have died.
Until 30th September 2007 it was possible to appoint an attorney under an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA), and if you already have an EPA in place it may still be valid. Unlike an LPA, an EPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) only if the person who has appointed the attorney has already lost mental capacity or is becoming mentally incapable of managing their own affairs. An EPA does not cover health and welfare decisions.
If the person who made the EPA no longer has mental capacity to deal with their financial affairs, the attorney(s) can only act in an extremely limited capacity until the EPA has been registered with the OPG.
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