Enduring Powers of Attorney (EPA) were replaced by Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) from 1st October 2007, so it has not been possible to create new EPAs since then. However, if you have an EPA in place already you may be wondering whether you need an LPA.
Often the answer to this question is no, but there are some very important factors that you should now consider.
EPAs only cover financial affairs
With an EPA it wasn’t possible to appoint attorneys to make decisions about your personal welfare. An EPA only deals with your finances and allows attorneys to make decisions about selling your home, making gifts, and managing your bank accounts and bills. To give someone legal authority to make decisions about your health, care, and life sustaining treatment you need a Health & Welfare LPA in place.
LPAs let you appoint replacement attorneys
When was the last time you checked the attorneys you appointed on your original EPA? Under an EPA it wasn’t possible to name replacement attorneys, so if your original attorneys are no longer able to act for any reason your EPA would cease. This would leave you with no one in place to make decisions on your behalf unless an application was made to the Court of Protection to appoint a Deputy.
With an LPA you can nominate replacement attorneys to step in and act if your original attorneys die or stop acting, providing an additional safeguard for you.
Increased Flexibility
Under an EPA you could include restrictions on how your attorneys can make decisions, or what they can make decisions about. This is still present in an LPA, now titled ‘instructions’, but in additional to this an LPA lets you state your preferences. Whilst these are not binding on your attorneys, they are still very useful for letting your attorneys know how you would like them to act and what you would prefer they consider when making decisions on your behalf, such as speaking to your trusted financial adviser before making any financial decisions.
Stronger supervision and security
Unless you have included a restriction in your EPA that states otherwise, your attorneys can use your EPA while you have capacity and without registering it with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). On the other hand, just like an EPA, an LPA for financial affairs can be used either while you still have capacity or only after you’ve lost capacity (you can state which) HOWEVER it must be registered with the OPG before the attorneys can use it.
The process of making an LPA is also more involved as there are more safeguards in place. For an LPA to be valid it must be signed by a certificate provider; this is a person who can confirm that you have capacity to make the LPA and that no one is placing any undue pressure on you to coerce you into making the document or appointing them as an attorney.
Speak to one of our friendly team today to see whether your current EPA still meets your needs or whether now is the time to look at reviewing your planning and replacing your EPA with an LPA for Property & Financial affairs to take advantage of the stronger safeguards and flexibility. You may also wish to consider setting up a Health and Wealth LPA.