Lasting Powers of Attorney: What Are They & Why Are They Important?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (‘LPA’) is a legal document that lets you (the ‘donor’) appoint one or more people (known as ‘Attorneys’) to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so.

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney whilst you have mental capacity, gives you peace of mind and control over what happens to you if you ever become mentally incapable of managing your own affairs.

What Are the Different Types of Lasting Power of Attorney?

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney: Property & Financial Affairs and Health & Welfare. You can choose to make one or both types.

A Lasting Power of Attorney for Property & Financial Affairs can be used to appoint Attorneys to make decisions such as buying and selling property, managing a bank account and investments, dealing with tax affairs and claiming benefits.

A Lasting Power of Attorney for Health & Welfare can be used to appoint Attorneys to make decisions such as where the donor should live, day-to-day care (for example, diet), who the donor should have contact with and whether to give or refuse consent to medical treatment.

Before Lasting Powers of Attorney can be used, they must be registered with The Office of the Public Guardian, this process currently takes between 3-4 months. An LPA for Property & Financial Affairs can then be used by your Attorneys straight away by your Attorneys at your direction and can also continue to be used by them if you ever lost mental capacity. An LPA for Health & Welfare can only be used by your Attorneys in circumstances where you have lost your mental capacity.

Why Is a Lasting Power of Attorney So Important?

The benefits of having Lasting Powers of Attorney in place are that nobody can predict what could happen, today, tomorrow, or any day in the future. So, no matter what, by making Lasting Powers of Attorney now, you will have made sure that your affairs are taken care of.

Lasting Powers of Attorney are legally binding documents that both financial and medical institutions recognise. Without them in place, financial organisations and medical institutions will not be able to deal with the people you would otherwise want to act for you and look after your affairs.

You cannot make an LPA if you have already lost mental capacity. If this occurs, your close relatives and next of kin will have no legal authority to manage your affairs and will have to apply to become a Deputy through the Court of Protection. This complex legal process is costly and can take around 18 months to be finalised. During that time, nobody would have the legal authority to act on your behalf and manage your affairs.

Our advice is to make an appointment to discuss Lasting Powers of Attorney with a specialist Solicitor who can prepare Lasting Powers of Attorney for you, tailored specially to your personal and financial circumstances. If there are underlying family issues, complex or business assets involved or other individual circumstances that need to be considered, the advice of a specialist Solicitor will ensure that you have appropriate Lasting Powers of Attorney in place, tailored to your circumstances.

It is much better to have LPAs put into place sooner rather than later. Once the Lasting Powers of Attorney are in place, you will have peace of mind that any issues that arise in the future can be dealt with quickly and you can ensure that your decisions and affairs will be managed effectively.

For more information, contact our team today on 0114 2813636 or send an enquiry and we will get back to you

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