Power of Attorney - Why bother

In recent times we have, on numerous occassions, advised in situations when a Power of Attorney would have been most welcome to expidite clients wishes timeously and in some instances save considerable time, stress and un-neccesary trouble.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA), which replaced Powers of Attorney in October 2007, becomes important in the event of you becoming mentally incapacitated perhaps through Alzheimer's disease or an accident. You need someone to help you make the decision and organise the special care that you may need and to attend to your finances as you will not be in a good state to sort this out yourself.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that ensures someone you trust will handle your property affairs and/or personal welfare in the event of you becoming unable to sort out your own affairs through mentally incapacity or disability. If it is never used, so much the better. However, once registered it can be used straight away. This means that your attorneys can, for example, look after your affairs whilst you go on holiday or it can be stored away and only put into effect in the event of a loss of your faculties.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney. You can choose one or the other or you can have both if you prefer:

• LPA for property and affairs: This allows your attorney to operate bank accounts, make investments, sign tax returns, and purchase property for your main place of residence. This power can be used before you lack mental capacity unless you restrict this power.

• LPA for personal welfare: This covers matters such as where you live and who should provide your care and medical treatment. This power does not extend to refusing life sustaining treatment unless your LPA expressly says so and can only be used after you lack the capacity to make the decision for yourself.

The time to do this is now. It really is too late to do it if the worst happens.

We all know we should make a will, but we all have need of a Lasting Power of Attorney as well. People can become unable to manage their own affairs at any stage of life. An accident or the onset of mental illness may make the everyday routines of paying bills, managing a budget and making financial decisions difficult and stressful and in some cases impossible; like selling your home or cashing in investments that need both signatures.

The LPA has been created to ensure that whilst you are of sound mind you can appoint someone you trust to look after your affairs if it becomes necessary and it also means you won't have to pay unnecessary expenses in the future. If you don’t have one, close friends and family (including your spouse/partner) do not automatically have the right to take over.

Instead, the Office of the Public Guardian will appoint a Receiver to act on your behalf. This process takes time whilst bills cannot be paid, affairs cannot be looked after and the cost of this process is expensive when compared to the cost of making your Lasting Power of Attorney. With an LPA in place there would be no Office of the Public Guardian charges or solicitor's fees payable and no annual fees charged by the court. This could mean a possible saving of many thousands of pounds over the years.