Lasting Power Of Attorney

Introduction

Lasting Powers of Attorney are very important documents and Isis Financial Planners strongly suggest you should have these documents for you and your family.

A Lasting Power of Attorney is to help protect you when you are no longer able to make decisions for yourself, for example, following a serious head injury or through illness such as dementia. In the document you appoint someone else, your "attorney", to make decisions on your behalf.

We suggest you consult a solicitor experienced in drawing up these documents to assist you and ensure the Lasting Power of Attorney is completely compliant with the law, so there are no problems in the future, should the document need to be invoked.

The Government's Lasting Power of Attorney website provides a lot more detailed explanation about these documents: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/if-you-have-an-enduring-power-of-attorney.

Overview

There are two different types of Lasting Power of Attorney:

• health and welfare
• property and financial affairs

You can choose to make either one of the above, or both.

Health & Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney

In this document you appoint one or more people you trust to make decisions for you on matters such as:

• your daily routine (e.g. eating and what to wear)
• medical care
• moving into a care home
• refusing life sustaining treatment

The Lasting Power of Attorney can only be used when you are unable to make your own decisions.

Property & Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney

This document again lets you stipulate one or more people you trust to act on your behalf for all matters relating to money and property, such as:

• bill paying
• benefit collection
• selling your home

Choosing your Attorney

Selecting one or more people to act as your Attorney, should you lose the ability to make your own decisions is, obviously, very important. The Attorney must be over 18 years of age when the document is drawn up, but can be anyone you know, such as your partner, family member, friend or a professional such as your solicitor. However, you should think very carefully about who you select and about what you need from an Attorney, for example:

• how much do you trust them?
• does the person manage their own affairs well?
• are you completely happy with this person making decisions in your best interest?

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney

We strongly suggest using a solicitor to draw up these important documents. Please see the end of this page for three companies with whom we work regularly. They will be happy to help you.

The process involves you filling in some forms then registering the Lasting Power Of Attorney.

If you want to make a Lasting Power of Attorney yourself you can complete the forms online or download and complete them: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/make-a-lasting-power-of-attorney.

You then need to "register" your documents, as your Lasting Power of Attorney can only be used if it's been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Again, you can do this online or download a form. For more information, see: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/register-a-lasting-power-of-attorney.

For further advice

We recommend that you ask a solicitor to draw up and register your Lasting Power of Attorney.

Contact us for more information.