Your control over who makes decisions on your behalf.
In the future you may need someone to make decisions for you in relation to Property, Financial, Health or Welfare matters. This could be for a number of reasons; age, illness, disability, mental incapacity or even just travelling. Secure your future decisions now by choosing people you trust to make these decisions in a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) document. The people you choose would be your attorneys and whether this is your partner, a trusted relative or a good friend is entirely your choice.
There are two types of LPA – Property & Financial Affairs (PA) and Health & Welfare (HW). These documents have to be made and signed while you have full mental capacity. Before an attorney can act on your behalf, your documents will be registered with the Office of Public Guardian (OPG).
LPA Property & Financial Affairs (PA)
A Property & Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney (PA) takes care of your financial affairs, property, money and assets. This means that your chosen attorney can pay your bills and deal with your income when you can’t.
One reason for a Property & Financial Affairs LPA is to avoid the possibility of family arguments over who takes responsibility for your assets. An LPA can be tailored to meet your specific requirements. You can hand over as little or as much control as you wish to your attorney.
Why do I need an LPA?
If you don’t have an LPA and you lose capacity, the impact on your partner and family can be huge. Many banks, care providers and medical professionals will insist an LPA is in place. Without an LPA you would have to apply to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship order. This can take a minimum of 6 months and can cost up to £2,000 per person.
During this time, any joint bank accounts may be frozen and the deputy would be under much closer scrutiny. The Courts may ask them to submit more documentation – all at a time of great stress and uncertainty.
LPA Health & Welfare (HW)
A Health & Welfare LPA allows you to decide who gets to make decisions on your future care and welfare. Unlike the Property and Affairs LPA, this element will only come into force when you’re unable to make decisions. It gives your attorney a voice about decisions like where you will live, your medical care and life-saving treatment.
Ensuring Your Wishes Are Respected
We will help you decide how to structure your LPA; If you’ve chosen two different attorneys you will need to tell us whether you want to appoint them to act together or independently.
We will also discuss the importance of registering your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) so that it becomes a legally binding document.
LPAs for businesses
If you are a business owner, it is important to think about what would happen to your business if you were unable to make decisions.
Who would authorise the payment of bills, sign cheques, service a business loan or pay salaries if something happens to you? Would you hope that a colleague or family member will get authority to act on your behalf? This could take some time to sort during which your business will potentially be at risk.
To protect your business, talk to us about a separate Business LPA to cover this.
We make Lasting Power of Attorney easy for you
Above all, we counsel having both types of LPA to ensure your attorneys can cater for your needs, whatever situation you find yourself in.
Making an LPA is easy. One of our Award-winning Consultants will visit you in your home, workplace or care facility to take your instructions to draw up all the necessary paperwork. You tell us who you’d like to appoint as your ‘attorney’ and in what circumstances. Once signed by all parties, LPA documents need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. They need to be registered before they can be used although it’s not a legal requirement to do so immediately. If a person was to lose mental capacity before their LPAs were registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, their proposed attorneys could register the document on their behalf.
To arrange your Lasting Power of Attorney
call us on 01603 894500 today