Lasting Power of Attorney

Lasting Power of Attorney

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)?

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that enables you to appoint one or more persons to manage and make decisions about your property and financial affairs and your health and welfare, if you are unable to do so yourself in the future or if you were to find it difficult to do so in the future.

Lasting Powers of Attorney: Questions and Considerations

Please consider the list of decisions to be made, together with the handout above explaining what a Lasting Power of Attorney is.

Choice of Attorney

Consider the following when choosing your attorney:

• They must be over 18.
• They must not be an undischarged or interim bankrupt person, if you are making a property and affairs power.
• They must be absolutely trustworthy and possess appropriate skills to make decisions on your behalf – consider the amount of money which could be managed by the attorney, their own personal commitments/long term goals, their financial stability and history of sound/unsound decision making and their own financial experience. By appointing someone to be able to make decisions on your behalf there is the possibility of exploitation if the attorney misuses the Lasting Power of Attorney.
• They should be people with whom you have a settled and easy relationship and if more than one, who get on with each other well, or who are likely to do so.
• You can appoint one attorney, but it is advisable to appoint more than one to lessen the chance of abuse of the power and ensure continuity in case the attorney cannot act.
• They can be a family member (it is common to appoint partners and children)/friends or your professional adviser, such as your solicitor – if the latter is prepared to accept the role.
• They must agree to be your attorney and should understand the role they will be fulfilling. (Before we draft your Lasting Power of Attorney we will write to your attorneys to ask if they are happy to take on the role.)
• If they know the people who will be notified on registration, they should have a good relationship with them.
• They must always act according to the principles laid down in the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and in your best interests as set out in the Act and follow the guidance contained in the Code of Practice. All this will be explained to your proposed attorneys before they agree to act for you. (They will not need to attend the office, we can post the documents to them.)
• They will need to sign the Lasting Power of Attorney document accepting their role and their responsibilities.
• You will need to supply the name, address, date of birth, telephone number (landline or mobile) and email address of your attorney(s).
• You should consider the age and health of your attorney.

How do you want them to operate in their role as attorney?

• If you have more than one attorney, consider how you want them to act. Jointly, i.e. always together, or jointly and severally, i.e. together and independently so that they can sometimes sign together and sometimes separately. This works well when the attorneys do not live near to each other, or if one were to retire or die, then the other attorney could still act.
• You can direct that some tasks, e.g. selling your house, must be dealt with together, and some tasks together and independently.
• If they are appointed together, they MUST be able to sign together which can be difficult in practice and if one dies, loses mental capacity or becomes bankrupt (if the power is a financial power), the document can no longer be used.
• If you appoint your spouse or civil partner, be aware that dissolution of the marriage or civil partnership terminates the appointment of your spouse/civil partner, unless you have indicated otherwise.

Do you want to appoint replacement attorneys, and if so, when?

• It is especially useful to have a replacement attorney if your original attorneys have been appointed jointly, but is also sensible as a way of “Hoping for the best and preparing for the worse!”
• Your choice of replacement attorney should be considered in the same way as your original attorney, so read the section above on the choice of attorney.
• You need to decide which attorney they will be replacing (in the absence of a choice from you, the replacement attorney will replace the first attorney who needs replacing).

Do you wish to place any instructions (restrictions) on the attorneys you are appointing?

• You may wish to consider restricting the occasions when the attorneys should act for you.
• Such instructions will be legally binding and could cause difficulties.
• If you do, you must be careful that the document can still work. You could have advice on this at our meeting.

Do you want to give your attorneys guidance by way of preferences?

• You may, for example, feel it would be helpful to give your attorneys some idea of the way in which, ideally, you would like your finances dealt with if you no longer have the capacity to deal with them yourself. In relation to a Health and Welfare LPA you may want, for example, to indicate where you would wish to live and what treatments you may prefer not to have if you lose mental capacity.
• Please consider carefully the types of decisions you would like your attorney to make on your behalf, so we can discuss this in our meeting and draft the power to meet your wishes.

Do you want your attorneys to be paid?

• Generally, family and friends would not expect to be paid, although you may wish for it to be made clear that their out-of-pocket expenses should be covered.
• If you have professional attorneys, they must be paid for their work and this should be covered.

Notifying people of the registration of the power

You can choose up to five people to be notified when the LPA is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Once the power is registered, it can be used by your attorney. It is an important safeguard as they can raise concerns on your behalf. It is important that you think carefully as to the people you choose? Ideally, they should be a person:

• With whom you are likely to have contact throughout your life;
• Who is interested in your best interests and well being;
• You should tell them that you are naming them, and make sure that they will take their role seriously, as it is for your protection;
• You need to supply their full personal details as above;
• Please share the enclosed information with those to be notified so that they can access more information.

Who will be the certificate provider?

You must choose a person to act as your certificate provider. Without this, the power cannot be registered or used.

This is a VITAL role, as the person concerned is confirming facts about the form and about you, namely:

• That they have read the prescribed information on the LPA and the part of the form which you have completed, and that part which they will complete;
• That you understand the purpose of the LPA and the scope of the authority which it conveys. (They can only do this if they themselves understand what it is, in order that they can ask you the appropriate questions);
• That no fraud or undue pressure is being used to induce you to create the LPA. (They will need to ask various questions to establish this);
• That there is nothing else that would prevent your LPA from being created (perhaps a defect in the way in which it has been completed).

Who can act as certificate provider?

• They must be someone of your choice and are over 18 years of age;
• Someone whom you have known for at least two years; or
• Someone who, on account of their professional skills and expertise, considers themselves competent to make the judgements necessary to give the certificate, such as a lawyer or doctor.

They cannot be:

• A member of your family;
• A family member of any of your attorneys;
• Your business partner or paid employee;
• Any attorney appointed by you under this document or another LPA or Enduring Power of Attorney;
• The owner, manager or employee of a care home in which you are living, or their family member or partner;
• A director or employee of a trust corporation appointed as your attorney.

If we are not appointed as attorneys, we can act as Certificate Provider but, in order to fulfil the requirements of the document itself, we may need to see you alone at some point, even though you are with your spouse/civil partner/partner.

If we agree to act as attorney, we cannot act in the role of Certificate Provider, but will supply you with a list of appropriately qualified local solicitors any one of whom could fulfil this role.

Our Guide to Lasting Powers of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a means of appointing someone (an attorney) you trust to act for you even after you have lost the mental capacity to make decisions yourself.

There are two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney;

1. Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney and
2. Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney.

It is for you to decide whether you would like both types or just the one.

Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Powers of Attorney

A Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney will allow your attorney(s) to make decisions regarding your property and financial affairs, for example, buy or sell
property, manage investments or carry on a business and your attorney may access personal information.

Health and Welfare Lasting Powers of Attorney

A Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney will allow your attorney(s) to make decisions regarding your health and welfare, for example, to give or refuse consent to medical treatment, where you live and with whom, what you wear, what you eat and how you spend your day and your attorney(s) may access your personal information such as medical records.

Registration

A Lasting Power of Attorney cannot be used until it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian but it does not have to be registered straight away.

Please be aware that the registration process takes at least five weeks, therefore if you do not apply for registration immediately your attorney(s) may not be able to use the Lasting Power of Attorney when they need to.

Lasting Powers of Attorney contain important safeguards:

1) Lasting Powers of Attorney cannot be registered unless an independent person completes a certificate to confirm that in their opinion you are making the Lasting Power of Attorney of your own free will and that you understand its purpose and the powers you are giving your attorney(s).

2) You can name up to five people to be notified when an application to register your Lasting Power of Attorney is made. Anyone who applies to register your Lasting Power of Attorney must notify these people, this allows them to raise any concerns they have about the application to register. If you do not choose to have anyone notified you must have two people complete a certificate as to
your understanding.

Choosing your Attorney(s)

When choosing your attorney(s) you must choose someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf.

Your attorney(s), unless you have included restrictions in your lasting power of attorney, will have the same amount of control over your affairs as you would have had. It is important that your attorney(s) know what you want. You can appoint as many attorney(s) to act for you as you want, however you will need to specify how you want them to act:

• Jointly; or
• jointly and severally; or
• jointly in some matters and jointly and severally in others in others.

At the time of making your Lasting Power of Attorney you can appoint replacement attorney(s) to act in place of any attorney who is no longer able to or does not wish to make decisions on your behalf as an attorney. Your attorney(s) cannot choose who to replace them.

LPA Costs

Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney Without Registration: £200.00 plus VAT

With Registration: £300.00 plus VAT

plus Office of the Public Guardian Registration fee of £82

Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney Without Registration £200.00 plus VAT

With Registration: £300.00 plus VAT plus Office of the Public Guardian Registration fee of £82

Both Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney and Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney With Registration: £400 plus VAT plus two registration fees of £110 each

If your annual income is under £12,000 you may be entitled to a 50% remission of the registration fee.

If you are in receipt of one or more of the following benefits you may be exempt from the registration fee:

Income Support, Income-based Job-Seekers Allowance, Income-based Employment and Support Allowance, State Pension Guarantee Credit element of pension credit, a combination of Working Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit, Disability Element or Severe Disability Element, Housing benefit, Council Tax benefit, Local housing allowance.

FURTHER INFORMATION