THE IMPORTANCE OF LASTING POWERS OF ATTORNEY

Arecent survey of 2,000 UK residents by Which found that while 85% of respondents knew what a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) was, only one in seven people had one in place.

The misconceptions

There are many misconceptions about the use of LPAs but the two most common are that people incorrectly believe they lose access to their financial accounts once the LPA is registered and that an LPA can be created at any time during a person’s lifetime, not realising that it cannot be done once mental capacity has been lost.

There are two different types of LPAs. Under the LPA for Property & Financial Affairs, while you still can make your own decisions, you can ask your attorneys for help with your financial matters, for example, to sign documents for you or go into the bank on your behalf. Your attorneys would only take over if you were ever to lose the ability to make your own decisions about your finances.

Whereas with an LPA for Health & Welfare, your attorneys would only be able to act if you were unable to make health and welfare decisions yourself.

If you lose the mental capacity to make your own decisions without an LPA in place, your loved ones will have to apply for a Deputyship Order at the Court of Protection. It is a significantly more costly and complex application than making LPAs. The deputy is accountable to the court on an ongoing basis and an annual supervision fee applies. Applying for a Deputyship Order also takes considerably longer than registering an LPA.

The benefits of an LPA

• You can appoint someone you trust. Without an LPA in place, it is left up to the court to approve who should make decisions on your behalf if you lose mental capacity.

• There is access to money when needed. If you are the primary earner and you became incapacitated it is likely that your partner, children, or friends would need urgent access to your bank accounts to ensure essential bills continue to be paid.

• You can leave instructions. If an attorney is presented with a choice, they can follow any instructions you have left in your LPA, which would be legally binding.

• It gives you peace of mind. Think of LPAs as if they were an insurance policy. Once you have made LPAs and the documents have been registered, you can simply file them away and enjoy the peace of mind that comes with knowing that if anything should happen, they are in place to make things easier for you and for your loved ones.

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