Whilst a Will can protect your family after you have passed, what about protecting yourself and your family should you find yourself unable to care for your own matters?
Whether that be making bill payments or giving authority for essential healthcare, without the appropriate documentation in place you could find yourself in a difficult position of being unable, whether through physical or mental incapacity, to manage your own finances and healthcare.
Here are our 5 benefits of having a Lasting Power of Attorney and why you should really consider prioritising having one.
1. Having an LPA allows for better decisions to be made.
Imagine not having the capacity to make crucial decisions regarding your finances, property and assets or having the capacity to make potentially life changing decisions regarding your health and wellbeing. Sounds scary?
Having an LPA in place means that your nominated and trusted person can make those decisions on your behalf. That person will have the legal authority to act on your behalf resulting in better decisions being made with regards to your financial and healthcare needs.
2. You have the freedom to choose who to nominate.
Handing over the responsibility of your finances and healthcare decisions can be a frightening thing to do, especially if you have always had a tight rein on such matters. With an LPA you can choose who to nominate, therefore putting you in control and giving you comfort that should your nominated person be called upon they will do so with your very best interests at heart.
You can nominate almost anyone at all, from a partner, a friend, a family member or your children. If you wish, you can appoint more than one Attorney.
3. Having an LPA can avoid delays, high costs, stress and upset.
If you were to lose the capacity to deal with your own financial and healthcare matters and don’t have an LPA in place then the day-to-day managing of your finances and healthcare can become stressful and upsetting for both you and your family and a family member, for example, cannot simply take control on your behalf.
4. You have the choice over what type of LPA to put in place.
For a person to take control they have to apply for a Deputyship Order from the Court which can be both time consuming and expensive with waits of 8 months or longer becoming the norm. Even if authority is granted it may be granted to a person who you may not have chosen for this role. With an LPA this decision is entirely yours to make. There are two types of LPA. One to cover your finances and one to cover your health.
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA grants your nominated person the authority to manage your finances, property and assets. A Health and Welfare LPA grants your nominated person the authority to make decisions on your healthcare, any surgeries or treatments you may require, and also extend to making decisions on your living arrangements. You can also grant your nominated person the authority to make end of life care decisions.
You can even choose different people for each role.
5. It provides peace of mind for you and your family.
We never want to imagine the worst but it’s wise to plan for it – just in case. If you have a Will in place then your family is protected when you pass and with an LPA in place both you and your family will have peace of mind, safe in the knowledge that if your mental or physical capacity took a turn your affairs will be well looked after.
You can provide guidance and instructions in your LPA, ensuring that your nominated person and family are fully aware of your wishes and that these can be acted upon.
BLOG: Who can make decisions when someone has lost mental capacity and there is no last power of attorney in place?
A Blog by Ellie Thornton.
Get in touch with our lasting power of attorney lawyers in West Yorkshire
If you are ready to make a Lasting Power of Attorney or even make a Will (if you don’t yet have one) then call us today to discuss your circumstances and to make an appointment. Speak to our solicitors in Wakefield, Ossett, Garforth, Sherburn in Elmet or Mapplewell, West Yorkshire today by calling 01924 290 029 or ask a question using our online enquiry form.
Common questions about Lasting Powers of Attorney:
To create a Lasting Power of Attorney, you will need to:
• Choose an attorney or attorneys to act for you
• Fill out the appropriate form (or have your solicitor do this for you)
• Register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian
Creating an LPA can take up to around 3 months and it is strongly recommended to have an experienced solicitor help you with the process to ensure all of the relevant issues are correctly considered and accounted for.
An attorney can be anyone aged 18 or over. Typically, they will be a spouse, partner, family member of close friends. However, some people choose to nominate a professional attorney, who could be a solicitor, accountant or other relevant professional, giving you the benefit of their skills and judgement. An attorney cannot be bankrupt if appointed as an attorney for property and financial affairs.
You can have more than one attorney, in fact, there is no limit on the number you can have. If you choose to nominate more than one, you can decide how they will make decisions for you.
There are three main options for how attorneys can make decisions:
Jointly – Your attorneys will need to agree all decisions unanimously. This means individual attorneys cannot act alone, which could be a problem under some circumstances e.g. if you were hospitalised and not all of your attorneys could be reached in time to make a critical decision. Be careful as if you chose this option and one of your attorneys dies or becomes unable to act the other attorneys can no longer make decisions unless you have appointed a replacement attorney.
Jointly and severally – Your attorneys can act together but can also act individually. This provides the most flexibility, as if one of your attorneys dies or becomes unable to act or is unavailable decisions can still be made, however, this runs the risk of an attorney making a decision for you that the other attorneys do not agree with e.g. over when to sell your home.
A mixture of jointly & jointly and severally – You can specify that your attorneys need to agree on certain decisions e.g. selling your house, but can act independently in an emergency e.g. if a quick decision is needed about medical treatment.
Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) preceded Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) and provided some of the same functions. The key differences were that EPAs could not be used to manage health or welfare issues and assumed the donor either had complete mental capacity or none at all.
EPAs therefore failed to make provisions for people who had partial capacity or fluctuating capacity and so only needed assistance with decisions, rather than for someone else to be wholly responsible for making decisions for them.
LPAs replaced EPAs from 1 October 2007.
An Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before October 2007 will still be legally valid. An EPA created and signed by the donor before October 2007 can also still be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.
A Lasting Power of Attorney must be set up by the person whose affairs it is intended to deal with while they still have the capacity to make decisions for themselves.
If your loved one has already lost the capacity to make decisions, you will instead need to apply to become a Court of Protection deputy to gain the power to manage their affairs. Our solicitors can assist and guide you through this legal process and please get in touch for a free initial consultation.
Contact Us
☎️ Call our Wakefield office on 01924 290 029
☎️ Call our Garforth office on 0113 246 4423
☎️ Call our Sherburn in Elmet office on 01977 350 500
☎️ Call our Mapplewell office on 01226 339 009
☎️ Call our Ossett office on 01924 586 466
