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What is a Power of Attorney?

A Power of Attorney is a legal document where one person (the donor) gives another person or people (the attorney) the ability to make decisions on their behalf.

Individuals may only set up a Power of Attorney only when they have the ability to weigh up information and make decisions for themselves, this is known as having ‘mental capacity’. Should mental capacity ever be lost if and should no LPA be in place, then the Court of Protection may appoint someone on your behalf. This is known as a Deputyship Application, which can be a costly and inflexible process

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)

LPAs have been the most common form of Power of Attorney since their introduction on 1^st October 2007. LPAs are an ongoing arrangement with no expiry date that allow others to make decisions on your behalf.

Once LPAs have been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, they can be used immediately, with your permission while you still have mental capacity, or should you wish it to, take effect from when you have been deemed to have lost mental capacity.

Types of LPA

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney one for Property and Financial Affairs and the second for Health and Welfare. The documents are distinct and must be entered into separately. Any donor may choose to appoint the same or different people on either document. You may also choose to enter into either type of LPA or both.

Property and Financial Affairs LPAs give your attorney(s) the power to make decisions and to deal with your financial affairs, for example to pay your bills, sell your property or investments and operate your bank accounts. Unless you specify otherwise in your LPA, your attorney(s) can use your LPA while you still have capacity to make financial decisions yourself. If you allow your attorney(s) to make decisions before you have lost mental capacity, it does not mean that they automatically make all financial decisions for you, it simply means that they can make these decisions if you allow them to at the time. This can be helpful if you are unwell or experience mobility problems.

Health and Welfare LPAs give your attorney(s) the ability to make decisions about matters such as your medical treatment, your diet, where you live and how you spend your day. Your attorney(s) can only use their powers once it has been determined that you have lost the mental capacity. Your attorney(s) cannot make decisions about life-sustaining treatment unless you specifically allow this in the LPA. Life-sustaining treatment includes ventilation to help with breathing, feeding through a tube and resuscitation.

Joint appointments

Should you choose to appoint more than one attorney you may decide to appoint your attorneys in one of two ways:

Jointly, which would necessitate that all attorneys would need to agree together to any decision being made, although this may prove inconvenient, particularly for routine decisions. In addition, your LPA would be terminated if one of the attorneys can no longer act unless you have appointed a replacement for joint attorneys, or

Jointly and severally appointments allow your attorneys to make decisions and act either together or independently. This provides more flexibility than appointing attorneys to act jointly and means that the remaining attorney(s) can continue to act even if one or more of them becomes incapable of doing so.

You may also choose to appoint replacement attorneys to act should your primary attorneys no longer be able to undertake their duties for whatever reason.

There are duties imposed upon how your attorney must act. The most important duty for any attorney is that they are only ever allowed to act in the best interests of the donor.

Further information can be found here: Office of the Public Guardian – GOV.UK

How can we help you?

We encourage all of our clients to consider entering into LPAs. We are here to guide and support you through the process of creating, entering into and registering your LPAs. We are able to answer any questions you may have straightforwardly and clearly so as to ensure that you have peace of mind knowing that you and your family are prepared for the future, no matter how unexpected that future may be.

Should you wish to discuss LPAs or arrange an appointment to get your LPAs in place, please contact Stuart Bagshaw on:-

Telephone: 01823 756060

Email stuar1745563240t.bag1745563240shaw@1745563240beren1745563240sens.1745563240co.uk1745563240