Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are legal documents which allow you to appoint someone to make decisions about your property, financial affairs, health and welfare if you become unable to make decisions for yourself.
You can only appoint someone as an attorney whilst you still have the capacity to do so, so timing is important.
Why do you need an LPA if you are already married?
If you are married or in a legal civil partnership, your spouse does not automatically have the right to act as an attorney on your behalf. The harrowing story of Kate Garraway and her husband, Derek Draper, has been a lesson she shared with the nation.
When her husband was put into a coma, Kate’s lack of LPA meant she did not have the rights she needed to look after his health and financial affairs.
You can read the full story here: https://cunningtons.co.uk/kate-garraway-lasting-power-attorney.
Two Types of LPA
There are actually two different types of Lasting Power of Attorney, each covering different aspects of your life. You’ll need to decide whether you want one or both:
Property and Financial Affairs LPA covers decisions about your money, property, and business affairs – things like paying bills, managing bank accounts, selling your house, or dealing with investments and other assets.
Health and Welfare LPA covers personal decisions about your daily life and medical care – such as where you live, what medical treatment you receive, your daily routine, and even life-sustaining treatment decisions.
Most people benefit from having both types of LPA in place, as they work together to provide you with complete protection, whatever happens to you.
You can appoint the same person as attorney for both, or choose different people depending on their skills and your preferences.
However, as you can see, the Power of Attorney is a very powerful tool which affects almost every aspect of your life. You should exercise extreme caution when setting them up, and be very careful who you give this power to.
The statistics that should concern us all
The numbers are sobering: 78% of UK adults don’t have an LPA in place, including 77% of those over 55. With nearly one million people living with dementia in the UK – a figure projected to rise to 1.4 million by 2040 – the need for planning has never been greater.
So when, like so many of us, you wonder “why do you need a power of attorney?”, think of an LPA like an umbrella. If you have one, you hopefully won’t need one.
Sort out your LPAs sooner rather than later
None of us knows what’s going to happen to us in the future: you might develop a debilitating disease like Derek Draper did, or you might be injured in a riding accident like Christopher Reeve did.
It is therefore important not to delay in appointing an attorney, no matter how old you are.
Once you have lost mental capacity, it is already too late, and at that point if someone needs to make decisions for you they have to apply to the Court of Protection to become your deputy. Applying for deputyship is a lengthy and costly procedure.
Deputyship applications typically cost over £1,500 in the first year alone, take 4-6 months to process, and during that time no one can make decisions on your behalf, or access your funds.
What is the process for arranging an LPA?
Lasting Powers of Attorney must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before they can be used.
At Cunningtons LLP Wills and Probate solicitors we always recommend that your Lasting Powers of Attorney are registered immediately so that they are ready to be used if they are ever needed.
Timing in registering LPAs
In the time of the pandemic, the Office of the Public Guardian experienced delays in the registration of Lasting Powers of Attorney, thanks to a number of issues, including staff working from home.
They also had to deal with a surge in applications to register Lasting Powers of Attorney, which may be due to Kate Garraway’s work in highlighting the issue.
The Office of the Public Guardian now suggests on its website that timings are now back to normal, and:
It takes 8 to 10 weeks to register an LPA if there are no mistakes in the application.
Don’t wait until it’s too late
Every day you delay is a day that you’re at risk. LPAs can only be created while you have mental capacity – once that’s lost, your only option is the expensive, lengthy deputyship process.
For more information please contact Cunningtons on
01376 567280
or email:
bryony.wilmshurst@cunningtons.co.uk
Visit our branches for more information: Braintree, Brighton, Chelmsford, Croydon, Hornchurch and Wickford.