WHY DO I NEED A LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY?

Lasting Powers of Attorney can make all the difference to your peace of mind if you are elderly as you may find it impossible to make your own decisions at some point in the future. When you have a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, you can rest assured that your appointed Attorneys will be able to make the decisions needed or take any appropriate actions on your behalf.

What Is A Lasting Power Of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney is an official legal document that details the Attorneys you have chosen to act on your behalf if you should lose capacity at any point in the future. It is priceless for individuals who lose the capacity to make decisions for themselves, perhaps due to dementia or severe mental health conditions.

Your Lasting Power of Attorney can ensure decisions about your financial arrangements and any health or social care arrangements are made. You can only prepare it while you have the capacity to do so, but it is put into action when you have lost the capacity to make reliable decisions on your own, or even if you no longer want to make these decisions yourself.

Types Of Lasting Power Of Attorney

There are two types of Lasting Powers of Attorney – Property & Affairs and Health & Welfare. If you only want to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney to cover all your financial arrangements, this can be put in place. But most people set up a Lasting Power of Attorney to cover both, the Property & Affairs and Health & Affairs to give them complete peace of mind.

You can also stipulate the sorts of decisions you want your Attorney to make on your behalf or opt for all decisions to be taken by your Attorney.

Whilst you can prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney yourself, you will need a Certificate Provider to confirm that they are happy you understand what you are doing and that you are not being forced into doing so. This can be someone you know well or a professional who may levy a charge.

However, as there are strict rules dictating the order in which the Lasting Powers of Attorney have to be signed. Using an external Certificate provider can often mean that the whole process can take longer than you anticipate. Also, if the document is signed in the wrong order, the application can be rejected, meaning an extra Court fee and extra delay.

The Lasting Power of Attorney will need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian for it to be valid. This process can take up to 3 months and should be done at the time of preparing the documents, although it does not need to be.
As part of the process, I am able to offer free home visits, at evenings or weekends and I can also act as Certificate Provider all within the fixed fee.

I am a professional Will writer based in Leicester with over 18 years’ experience in this area of law. Get in touch today for a friendly, sensitive service that offers free home visits and weekend and evening appointments to make the process as easy as possible for you or your loved one.