A Lasting Power of Attorney is an important document which will allow someone else to manage the affairs of someone who can’t do it themselves. It is particularly useful if a family member develops a condition such as Alzheimer’s or has an accident which deprives them of their capacity.
If those sort of life events occur and you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney someone can still get authority to deal with affairs on your behalf but they would have to apply to the Court of Protection which is generally a more time consuming and expensive process.
It is possible to prepare your own Lasting Power of Attorney by using forms which can be downloaded from the government website. Family court statistics show there were 1,161,958 LPAs registered in 2023, up 37% on the previous year. There has been a sharp rise in recent years, attributed to various factors including large parts of the process being moved online, easing the application process. It is the first time that LPAs have reached over 1 million in terms of registered applications, indicating that many are starting to understand the fundamental importance of this documentation.
However there are a number of traps that you can fall into if you don’t give proper consideration to some of the issues and this is where a solicitor can help.
There is much more to this than just filling in a form. There are big issues with major ramifications which need to be explained and thought about. For example, how many attorneys should you have? What if one dies or is incapacitated themselves? Do they all need to agree on everything? Do you want them to manage your affairs even if you have capacity?
If you get these decisions wrong, your attorney may not be able to do what you need them to do for you when the time comes, or on the other side of the coin, you could have someone trying to take control of your life when you don’t want that.
If you instruct us to prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney for you we will do much more than just fill in a form. We will:
Discuss with you your circumstances and what decisions may be best for you in those circumstances
Answer any questions that you have and make sure that you have considered everything that you need to
Translate all of that to the paperwork and make sure that it is all properly filled in
Submit the necessary paperwork to the Office of the Public Guardian so that the power of attorney is properly registered and can be used when needed. We will deal with any matters that the OPG raise to ensure that that happens
Confirm to you that the power of attorney has been registered and supply you with official copies so that it is ready to be used if need be and answer any further questions that you may have
All of this will give you the peace of mind that the Lasting Power of Attorney has been properly created and will work to do what you want it to do. You may not get that if you have done it yourself and not had the benefit of legal advice. Filling in the form is only part of the job. The value for money that we will give you is that legal advice so that you can sleep soundly at night knowing everything is correct.
If you would like to discuss how we can assist you please call us on 0161 696 6238 or complete our online enquiry form and a member of the team will contact you to discuss your requirements.
Comments