Empowering Your Future: Why You Need a Lasting Power of Attorney

Life is unpredictable, and one of the most important steps you can take to protect your future is setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

This legal document ensures that your wishes are respected and your interests are safeguarded, even if you lose the mental capacity to decide for yourself.

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)?

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you to appoint someone you trust (known as an attorney) to make decisions on your behalf if you can’t do so yourself due to mental incapacity.

This can happen due to an accident, illness, mental health problems or a condition like dementia. In any of these cases, you can’t make important personal decisions, having an LPA in place ensures that your loved ones carry out your wishes.

Everyone should consider LPA at some point in their lives, for example, once they get married, buy a property, have children, receive a medical diagnosis that could affect their future health, and other major changes of circumstances.

Of course, though, no one can predict exactly when they’ll need an LPA – so it’s good to get it out of the way fairly early in life.

Difference between Lasting and Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA)

Before October 2007, Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPAs) were used in England and Wales.

However, EPAs only covered financial decisions and didn’t address health and welfare matters.

The Mental Capacity Act 2005 introduced LPAs, which provide more comprehensive coverage and additional safeguards to protect the person granting the power of attorney (the donor).

EPAs made before this date are still valid but have been replaced by LPAs.

Why You Need an LPA

The most obvious reason or trigger for making an LPA is receiving a medical diagnosis that could affect your capacity to make decisions in the future. Here’s why an LPA helps in that scenario:

1. Maintaining Control: By creating an LPA, you have the power to choose who makes decisions on your behalf and can guide your preferences and wishes.
2. Avoiding Family Disputes: Appointing an attorney can help prevent disagreements among family members and ensure that your affairs are managed by someone you trust.
3. Protecting your Assets: An LPA can help safeguard your assets and ensure that your financial obligations are met, even if you cannot manage them yourself.

The Two Types of LPAs

There are two types of LPAs:

1. Property and Financial Affairs LPA: This type of LPA grants your attorney the authority to manage your financial matters, including paying bills, managing investments, and selling property if necessary.
2. Health and Welfare LPA: This type of LPA allows your attorney to make decisions about your healthcare, living arrangements, and daily routines if you lose the capacity to make these decisions yourself.

Setting Up an LPA

So, how do you actually go about setting up an LPA? It’s straightforward enough, but it can take some time. The process of setting up an LPA involves several steps:

1. Choose your attorney(s) and discuss your wishes with them.
2. Complete the relevant LPA forms, which are available from the Office of the Public Guardian.
3. Have your LPA signed by a certificate provider (usually a solicitor or doctor) who confirms that you understand the implications of the LPA and are not under any undue pressure to create it.
4. Register your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (there is a fee for this).

You can seek guidance from a legal professional when setting up an LPA to ensure that it accurately reflects your wishes and is legally valid.

Summing Up

Having an LPA is essential to planning for the future and protecting your interests.

By appointing someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you lose mental capacity, you can ensure that your wishes are respected and that your loved ones are not faced with the additional stress of making difficult decisions during an already trying time.

Don’t wait until it’s too late. Consider setting up an LPA today to safeguard your future and provide peace of mind for yourself and your loved ones.

Batt Broadbent can provide lasting power of attorney guidance to help you decide what’s best for you and your health and financial situation.

Contact us here to learn more.