What is a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)?
Life is unpredictable. Any one of us could face an accident, illness, or simply grow too frail to manage our financial affairs or make important health and welfare decisions.
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you, the ‘donor,’ appoint one or more trusted people, called ‘attorneys,’ to help you make decisions or to make decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to do so. They are important for ensuring you appoint those who will have your best interests at heart.
There are two types of LPA:
Property and Financial Affairs LPA: This lets your attorneys manage your money and property, for example paying bills or selling your home. It can be used with consent if you still have capacity but want help or if you lose your capacity.
Health and Welfare LPA: This covers decisions about your personal care, such as medical treatment, where you live, and daily routine. This only comes into effect if you lose the mental capacity to make these decisions yourself.
Planning and having your Lasting Powers of Attorney in place provides peace of mind and ensure that your affairs will be managed by people you trust, in the way you would want. It also removes the burden from your loved ones having to go to a lengthy process of applying to the Court of protection for a deputyship order.
Property & Finance Lasting Power Of Attorney
An LPA for financial decisions can be used while you still have mental capacity, or you can state that you only want it to come into force if you lose capacity. This document covers many types of situations, including:
Buying and selling property
Paying the mortgage
Investing money
Paying bills
Arranging repairs to property
We would be happy to discuss whether this could be of use to you.
Health & Welfare Power Of Attorney
The cover for health and care decisions can only be used once you have lost mental capacity. An attorney can generally make decisions about things such as:
Where you should live
Your medical care
What you should eat
Who you should have contact with
What kind of social activities you should take part in
You can also give your permission for your attorney to make decisions about life-saving treatment.
This type of LPA would only come into play when you’re unable to make your own decisions.
Some things to think about...
Don’t assume that if you’re married or in a civil partnership, your spouse would automatically be able to deal with your bank account and pensions, and make decisions about your healthcare, if you lose the ability to do so. This is not the case! Without an LPA, they won’t have the authority to do any of these tasks.
What would concern you most if you were unable to make decisions for yourself? Would it be where you lived? What you ate? What care and medical treatment you were given? Or would it be: is my money being spent wisely?
How happy would you be for Social Services to make all of the decisions about where you should live, or other professionals deciding what medical treatment you should receive, with your family having no say in the matter?
Having an LPA in place maximises your chances of having your wishes followed in the future. It provides the reassurance of knowing that, if the worst were to happen, you have chosen someone you trust and who knows your wishes, to make these decisions for you. It is not something to be overlooked.