When YOU can't cope,
a Lasting Power of Attorney can provide a helping hand.
For when you can't manage your financial affairs, an accident, or the onset of mental illness,
may make the everyday routines of buying and selling a house,
paying bills, managing a budget and making financial decisions
difficult and stressful, if not impossible.
By completing an Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) you can ensure
that if this should ever happen, the person you choose to be
your representative (your Attorney) will look after your affairs.
Friends, family, not even your spouse have the automatic right to take
over.
The LPA has been created to ensure that while you are of sound
mind you can appoint someone you trust to look after your affairs.
What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?
A LPA is a legal document granting to a named person or people
the authority to act on your behalf. Subject to certain important
conditions and safeguards it continues in force until death,
even if you become incapable of looking after yourself.
What happens if I don't have an LPA?
Without a LPA the Court of Protection will appoint a Receiver
to act on your behalf. This process takes time and is expensive.
With a LPA in place there would be no Court of Protection
charges or solicitor's fees payable and no annual fees charged
by the court. Minimal fees apply to register the LPA.
What safeguards are there?
When mental capacity is lost the LPA must be registered before the
Attorney can legally act. You and your closest relatives will
be informed allowing you to intervene with the registration
should someone try to use the LPA illegally.
Am I in control of my affairs if I sign an LPA?
Yes. The LPA does not restrict your rights to go on looking
after your own affairs for so long as you feel capable. The
LPA simply means that there is someone to take over if, and
when, you cannot cope. |