Drawing up a Lasting Power of Attorney can seem like a daunting process but one day it may not be possible to manage your own financial or welfare matters without help from someone else. Our extremely helpful and approachable Powers of Attorney Solicitors can put things in place for you to give your family one less thing to worry about.
Our approach is to put you first; to do this we assess your individual situation, listen carefully to your wishes and then provide specialist advice in how you can proceed forward. Our professional and dedicated solicitors act fully in your best interests whether you feel you have a complicated or simple situation. We understand your needs and you can rest assure that we have dealt with many similar cases to yours, which puts us in the best position to advise you.
It’s vitally important that you make Lasting Powers of Attorney while you are mentally able to do so, in fact it’s the only time when you can make an LPA as once you lose mental ability you have to go through the much more costly and lengthier process through the Court of Protection.
Most people don’t realise that if you lose the ability to make financial welfare decisions for yourself, your partner or family do not automatically have the right to do this on your behalf. If you don’t plan ahead, you will have no say at all in who helps you with your finances and welfare.
A Lasting Power of Attorney gives another person, or more than one, the legal authority to make certain decisions on your behalf, in the event that you are unable to do so or lose mental capability whether it is through an brain injury or developing a disease such as Alzheimer’s. Making an LPA is not just for the elderly, but for all manner of people including those who take part in extreme sports or participate in contact sports such as rugby.
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA – an attorney can make decisions on such as things as buying or selling property, paying the mortgage and bills, investing money etc.
A Health and Welfare LPA – an attorney can make decisions about your healthcare such as where you should live, your medical care, what you should eat, what kind of social activities you should take part in etc.
Our highly specialised team can help you make Lasting Powers of Attorney and discuss all the options available to do, helping to make the best decision and plan for your specific circumstances. For both types of LPA you must instruct someone who you fully trust to act on your behalf or you can give them specific guidance in regards to your wishes.
If someone is lacking in mental capacity and they have not in the past drawn up an EPA or an LPA then a Deputy will need to be appointed by the Court of Protection.
A Deputy can be a relative or a close friend and is often someone who has been helping the person now lacking mental capacity with their affairs prior to the application. In some circumstances a Deputy can be appointed by the Court itself.
A Deputy is legally responsible for acting and making decisions on behalf of someone who lacks the mental capacity to make these decisions for themselves. A Deputy will generally only be appointed to deal with someone’s property and financial affairs.
If you need advice on whether you need to make an application for Deputyship on behalf of someone then we can help you. You are not expected to be an expert in assessing someone’s mental capacity. We can help you obtain a medical report from a GP to do this. If medical evidence is already to hand confirming an application for Deputyship is appropriate then we can assist you with the application through to your appointment.
If someone does not have sufficient mental capacity to make a Will, you are able to apply to the Court of Protection for the court to make or amend a Will on that person’s behalf. Common examples of this would be if someone does not have a Will and has a long-term partner. Without a Will an unmarried partner would not inherit anything so a Statutory Will can correct this.
This is also the case with step-children as only adopted children would receive a share of the estate. Another example would be where someone has a Will but their circumstances have changed either because the size of their estate has diminished, if they have made a gift of their home to someone and the home has been sold to pay for nursing home fees, or they may have fallen out, or reconciled, with family members.
We are also members of Solicitors of the Elderly, an independent national organisation of lawyers who provide specialist legal advice for older and vulnerable people, their families and carers.
For further information on any of our Power of Attorney or Court of Protection services, or to make an appointment for an informal first discussion, please call us on +44 (0) 20 3813 8450 or simply click here to get in touch.
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