Chartered Legal Executive, Rebecca Green, explains its purpose and why you shouldn’t leave it too late.
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a powerful legal document which allows you to choose one or more ‘attorneys’ to make decisions and handle your affairs if you are no longer able to do so yourself. Attorneys can be trusted family members or friends or you can appoint a legal professional. The two types of LPA are property and financial affairs and health and welfare. You can only make an LPA whilst you have mental capacity.
With both LPAs, your attorneys will be able to make important decisions on your behalf, relating to your property, bank accounts, bill payments, and choices around care plans, medical treatment, and end of life wishes. You can also decide when an LPA for property and financial affairs is used.
All LPAs must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) and the process can take up to 16 weeks.
LPAs are complex documents. It is important that you speak to a legal professional who can advise you about your options and choices to ensure that your LPA reflects your wishes and preferences.
A spouse and next of kin cannot automatically make decisions on your behalf. Without an LPA, banks can freeze joint bank accounts when one party loses capacity and any accounts in the person’s sole name will be frozen. Next-of-kin can be involved in some health and welfare decisions, however they have no legal authority to be consulted or to make decisions on your behalf and this is where problems can arise.
If you lose capacity without an LPA, an application would need to be made to the Court of Protection for a Deputy to be appointed to manage your affairs. This is a very expensive and lengthy process and you cannot choose who is appointed as Deputy. The process can cost thousands of pounds and take up to 12 months to complete. It is much easier, less stressful for those closest to you and cheaper in comparison, to make LPAs and they allow you to choose who will act for you and how.
At Ellis-Fermor & Negus we offer specialist advice and a personalised service to all our clients. If you would like to discuss creating an LPA, please get in touch with our Wills and Probate team.
Rebecca Green is based in our Long Eaton branch – 0115 972 5222 / [email protected]
