powers of attorney

Today I’d like to look in a bit more detail at the different kinds of LPAs available. Its important to note that the person writing the Power of Attorney is the Donor, and the people they appoint to make decisions for them are the Attorneys.

The two main kinds are Health & Welfare and Property and Financial Affairs.

Health & Welfare confers powers relating to the type of health care and medical treatment for the donor, which can include where they live, day to day matters such as diet, routine and even life sustaining treatment. The powers under this type of LPA only become useable once the donor no longer has the mental capacity to make their own decisions.

Property and Financial Affairs confers powers to the attorney to make decisions relating to financial and property matters of the donor. The key difference here is that you the donor can grant your attorneys the power to make decisions for you as soon as the LPA is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (i.e. before you have lost mental capacity) which can be particularly useful if you need financial, property or business matters attended to whilst you are out of the country.

An Attorney has a legal duty to act in the donor’s best interests and failure to do so could be a criminal offence. So donor protection from unscrupulous attorneys is implicit in the LPA document itself. Also an attorney cannot use the LPA to change the donor’s will.

Most of us have some awareness of Powers of Attorney, but few of us really have a clear picture of what they are, who needs them and when they should be written. Today we are going to address exactly what are Powers of Attorney

Simply put, Powers of Attorney are you (the Donor) granting powers to people you know and trust (your Attorneys) to manage your affairs when you have lost the mental capacity to do so for yourself, either permanently or temporarily. There are two main kinds, ‘Health and Welfare’ and ‘Property and Financial Affairs’. We’ll dive into the details of how each of these can work in future posts, so watch this space.

Who needs them? In an ideal world, no one would ever need them. But sadly we don’t live in an ideal world and predicting who might lose their mental capacity and when is impossible.

When should you write them? As soon as you can. We often associate Powers of Attorney with the elderly, but sadly life is not always what we expect and sudden illness or accident does happen. Also your property and financial affairs LPA does grant you the power to allow your attorneys to act even when you have not lost mental capacity should you so wish. This can be useful for, for example, business owners who travel frequently and may need someone to manage affairs on their behalf whilst they are away.

Much like car insurance, the cost and time taken to set them up may feel like a nuisance but it’s something you should have in case the worst should happen.

And again like car insurance, if you don’t have your LPAs in place and then need them, it’s too late as power of attorney cannot be granted once you have lost mental capacity. In that situation the Court of Protection would appoint a Deputy to act in your best interests. However, this takes time, money and you have no control over who is appointed to manage your affairs.