It may be that you need to appoint someone to look after your affairs if for whatever reason you are unable to do so yourself. Perhaps you are going abroad or you are concerned about illness or mental capacity.
Your spouse, partner or other family members do not automatically have legal authority to deal with your financial or personal affairs.
If at some point in the future you suddenly become ill or suffer an unexpected accident and if you have the right type of Power of Attorney, your Attorneys will be able to step in and make decisions on your behalf. If you lose mental capacity it will be too late to appoint an Attorney after that time.
A Living Will is a document in which you indicate your views and decisions regarding medical treatment while you are still capable of making and communicating those decisions.
A Living Will can either be an “Advance Decision” or an “Advance Statement”.
An Advance Decision is a decision to refuse medical treatment. An Advance Statement contains other decisions about how you would like to be treated. Only an Advance Decision is legally binding but an Advance Statement should be taken into account when deciding what is in your best interests.
This is a sensitive and complex area of law. We can discuss the options carefully and thoroughly with you if you think that this might be of interest to you.
For further information please read our Powers of Attorney guide.
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