Lasting Powers Of Attorney Solicitors

A health and welfare LPA relates to your medical care, future care needs and decisions regarding life-sustaining treatment. With a health and welfare LPA, after it has been registered, your attorney makes decisions on your behalf should you become unable to make those decisions yourself because you are mentally incapacitated.

A property and financial affairs LPA relates to your finances and property, for example, managing a bank or building society account, paying bills, collecting benefits or a pension, or buying and selling a house. With a property and financial affairs LPA, after it has been registered, your attorneys can make decisions for you straight away provided you give them consent to do so.  Once you lose mental capacity, your attorneys can act immediately. . This reduces the burden associated with financial administration that you might experience.

Have you considered what might happen to your business if you became incapacitated? Arranging for a Lasting Power of Attorney means your attorney can help manage your business if you become incapable of running it yourself. This might include looking after staff, managing suppliers and paying bills.

How to set up an LPA

We can help you register an LPA. The process takes between eight and ten weeks and involves three main steps:

1. Choosing an attorney
2. Completing an LPA form
3. Registering the LPA

Once your LPA is registered, the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) will send a Registration Notice to you and your attorney to confirm the registration.

The OPG charge a registration fee of £82 per Lasting Power of Attorney. We will request this payment when registering your LPA for you.

If you receive means-tested benefits, you may be entitled to a reduction in the registration fee. We can advise you on this.

It’s often assumed that – if needed – your close family will be able to look after your affairs on your behalf. Sadly, this is not the case. Should you become incapacitated without having organised a Lasting Power of Attorney, there will be no-one with the legal authority to manage your affairs. A spouse, partner or child is rarely given the automatic right to look after your affairs without an LPA in place.

Your family or friends would need to apply to the Court of Protection to claim authority over your decisions and estate. The Court then appoints someone to manage your affairs – this person is appointed as your ‘Deputy’.

The role of Deputy is different to that of an appointed attorney – there is also the risk that your Deputy will not be the person you would have chosen to act as your attorney.

Arranging a Lasting Power of Attorney is something we can help you with. We are also able to act as your attorney if you need us to.