Sara Parascandolo
Solicitor
Phone: 01423 564551
Email: Info@powell-eddison.co.uk
Lasting Power of Attorney Solicitors
Have you thought about what would happen if you were unable to make decisions about your property and finances or your health and welfare?
Unfortunately, we don’t know what is around the corner, and none of us can guarantee our physical and mental capacity for the rest of our lives.
An incapacitating illness, accident or otherwise could happen to anyone, at any time, without warning.
The older we get the more likely it may be to suffer from illness, immobility or falls. However, Lasting Powers of Attorney are not just for the elderly and can assist in cases of sporting accidents, sudden heart attacks and many other situations.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you to appoint trusted individuals to manage your property and finances and health and welfare. These documents are largely to assist if you became incapacitated mentally. However, in terms of the Property and Financial document, your attorneys can use the document to manage your affairs with your consent. This means it can be used if you travel extensively overseas, suffer from mobility problems, or simply want some of the stress taking away from your day to day life.
Putting a Lasting Power of Attorney in place offers security and peace of mind to you and your loved ones and enables you to put in place a contingency plan.
Without a Lasting Power of Attorney, your loved ones may find it difficult to manage your affairs may need to apply to the Court of Protection for permission to manage your property and finances, which can take a long time, and be expensive.
Lasting Power of Attorney Specialists
Ge tin touch with our Private Client team to discuss Lastng Powers of Attorney.
Types of Lasting Powers of Attorney (or LPA)
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney; Property and Financial Affairs and Health and Welfare.
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA allows you to appoint trusted individuals to manage your property, whether it is residential or buy to let, maintain property, sell property, sign cheques, manage your bank accounts and investments and speak to people like utility companies.
A Health and Welfare LPA allows you to appoint trusted individuals to make decisions about medical treatments including treatments that would sustain your life, where you might live, who visits you and other general welfare decisions such as where you go.
Each document is independent of the other meaning you can set them up separately and at different times if you prefer. It also means that you can appoint different people to manage your property and finances, and your health and welfare. You can also have multiple powers of attorney. For example, you could put in place one Property and Financial LPA to enable close family members to manage your personal assets and another to enable your business partner to manage your business assets.
What happens if I, or someone I love, has an old 'Enduring Power of Attorney' or EPA?
Lasting Powers of Attorney replaced the old Enduring Power of Attorney scheme in October 2007.
However, if you have an Enduring Power of Attorney which pre-dates this, it is still legally valid and accepted.
Enduring Powers of Attorney only relate to property and financial matters, not health and welfare matters.
Some clients report having difficulties trying to register EPAs with banks or other financial institutions which is largely down to a lack of understanding about these documents.
We advise our clients that whilst these documents are still valid and useable, it is sometimes easier to put in place new Lasting Powers of Attorney which are much more readily accepted at a time they may be urgently required.
If you require any advice about EPAs, or registering an EPA with the Office of the Public Guardian, please get in touch to arrange a free initial, no obligation consultation.
What happens if someone I love needs a power of attorney, but they do not have mental capacity?
In order to put in place Lasting Powers of Attorney, the person in question needs to have mental capacity to do so as set out by the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and they are required to give us instructions to put the documentation in place independently.
We offer a free initial no obligation consultation whereby we could meet your loved one and assess whether we can help put in place Lasting Powers of Attorney for them, at their instruction.
If they lack mental capacity we can advise you about a Court of Protection Application so you can be appointed by the court to manage their affairs as their Deputy.
Advance decisions, Advance directives and Living Wills
You may have heard of Advance decisions which are also known as Advance directives or Living Wills. These are documents that you can put in place to record your wishes about treatments.
In our experience these documents are not commonly used and tend to be used by those who have particular religious beliefs or are suffering from a terminal illness and therefore know what sort of treatments they would like to refuse.
These documents have largely been replaced by Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney.
However, the difference is that Advance decisions are decisions made by you, and Lasting Powers of Attorney give the authority to your attorneys to make decisions on your behalf.
Therefore, it is important to discuss with your family and loved ones what your instructions are to ensure your wishes will be carried out.
Whether you require advice in regards to Lasting Power of Attorney or Advance decisions, Advance Directives or Living Wills look no further then Powell Eddison. Our specialist team can provide confidential, pragmatic and cost-effective advice. Contact us on 01423 564551 or email us on info@powell-eddison.co.uk to arrange your free initial, no obligation consultation with a specialist.
