Lasting Powers of Attorney
Under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, you can now draw up a legal document called a LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY (LPA)
– a document that enables you to appoint a person or persons to look after your affairs in the event of mental and/or physical incapacity,
perhaps due to infirmity in old age, illness or accident.
It is essential that such arrangements are made whilst you are fit and healthy since the Law does not allow such arrangements to
be made after the event, which can leave families with a multitude of practical problems.
You can draw up an LPA to cover the management of your financial affairs (called a Property & Financial Affairs LPA) and you can
draw up a second LPA (called a Health and Welfare LPA) to cover the management of personal matters such as medical care.
While an LPA is a very powerful document, there are numerous safeguards to prevent its abuse:
An LPA is primarily used to appoint a person to deal with your affairs after the onset of mental and/or physical incapacity. However,
before the document can be used, certain people (including you), who you elect when drafting the LPA, have to be notified and
anyone can object if they are not happy with the reasons why the document is being brought into effect.
You can include restrictions on what the people you appoint can and cannot do under the authority of the documents and you can
include advice or guidance on how you would like them to act.
When the LPA is signed, a certificate must be completed by a lawyer, doctor, social worker or an Independent Mental Capacity
Advocate to confirm that the person making the document understands the meaning of the LPA and the consequences of it.
In order to be fully activated, an LPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) for which the OPG will charge
a fee for each document that is registered with it.
Like your Will, an LPA can be updated or cancelled at any time should your circumstances change.
If you become unable to make decisions for yourself and you haven't got a LPA, then your family will have to go through a lengthy,
and very costly legal process before they are lawfully entitled to act on your behalf. In this situation, it is the Court of Protection that
chooses who has the power to make decisions about your life – not you.
Fees: Preparation, Certification and Registration £450 in VAT + Court Registration Fee.
