What is a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)?
Powers of Attorney (LPAs or Lasting Powers of Attorney) are incredibly useful as it allows the person making the Power of Attorney (known as the donor) to nominate people they trust to not only make decisions on their behalf if they are unable to do so (mentally incapacitated for example) but it can also allow them with consent, to speak and act on their behalf whilst they have capacity.
Are they valid when they are signed, like a Will?
For an LPA to be valid it needs to be registered with Office of the Public Guardian (Gov Body). They charge £82.00 per document to check and register the LPA. At present they are taking approximately 26 weeks to provide this service. You might be entitled to a remission for this fee and we’ll be able to assess this with you.
There are two types of LPA
Property & Finance
Health & Welfare
They do what the title implies, they give your attorneys the authority to deal with your financial affairs or your health and welfare. If you want your attorney to have control over both, you need both types of LPA. There is no such thing as a joint power of attorney, so a married couple would have to make out four separate powers of attorney to cover these.
It is also possible to have a ‘Business LPA’ but the powers over the business are governed by your Property and Financial Affairs LPA.
What can an Attorney do?
What powers you give to your attorneys and when you give them the power to act is entirely your decision. We recommend that you give your attorney the power to act immediately on registration, otherwise they may be required to prove you no longer have capacity every time they act on your behalf, and this can make your LPA less useful.
Dispelling a common myth
A common belief is that Powers of Attorney are only useful for old people who may lose capacity soon. Whilst they are undoubtedly useful for this, they have lots of other uses.
What you need to consider is ‘Who makes the decisions about me and my finances if I am unable to so?’. The Business LPA situation is a great example.
Another common misconception is that ‘I do not need an LPA because we have a joint account or all our finances are joint’. Unfortunately this is not strictly true. Banks can and often do freeze accounts if one party is incapacitated.
Additionally, from a health point of view, doctors are extremely limited in what they can tell you without the patient’s consent. The Power of Attorney is the best way of proving consent to health and welfare professionals.