Power of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you appoint one or more people (your attorneys) to help you either manage your financial affairs or to make decisions about your health and welfare. By far the best time for us to take such steps is when we are fit and well.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney:

Health and welfare gives an attorney authority to make decisions about medical care like moving into a care home, for example.
Property and financial affairs means an attorney can manage money and property including bill payments.

If you do not set up a Lasting Power of Attorney and later lose the mental capacity to make your own decisions, an individual would be required to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a ‘deputy’, which can be a far more time-consuming, complicated and expensive process.

CL Wills & Estate Planning is experienced in helping you put into place a Lasting Power of Attorney in order to ensure your wishes are clear and helping to avoid any legal challenges, disputes or delays in managing your finances and/or health in the future.

Plan ahead TODAY to make sure your health and welfare are protected.

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The different types of Lasting Power of Attorney

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) that cover two very different sets of circumstances. Each of them covers a very specific area and it is important to note that, in both areas, making decisions without the appropriate LPA in place is a lengthy and costly process.

More importantly, those decisions are likely to be made by people that do not know you or your family and have little or no understanding of your wishes.

Property and Financial Affairs LPA

A Property and Financial Affairs LPA covers, as you would imagine, everything relating to your property and financial affairs.

However, whilst many people assume that those making financial decisions automatically have the right to make Health and Welfare decisions, that isn't the case and with the dramatic rise in the number of people that lose mental capacity, more and more people are falling foul of this assumption.

Health and Welfare LPA

A Health and Welfare LPA covers, as you would imagine, everything relating to your health and welfare, which involves being able to make decisions such where you will live if you lose mental capacity, whether you will be repeatedly resuscitated should you fall seriously ill and other such health, welfare and medical issues.

The cost options for writing Lasting Powers of Attorney are shown in the following table;

Service	Per Person	Per Couple
LPA: Property & Financial^*	£225	£375
LPA: Health & Welfare^*	£225	£375
Both Types of LPA^*	£400	£750

VAT is not chargeable.

^*Our costs exclude the registration fee for your Lasting Power of Attorney, which is payable directly to the Office of the Public Guardian. This fee is currently £82 per LPA application, but you may be eligible for either an exemption or remission of this fee depending on your circumstances.

These costs are paid in addition to the costs of preparing a Will, if required.

General Power of Attorney

A General Power of Attorney (GPA) enables you give someone the authority to make decisions over very specific matters. You can even make several different GPAs, with different Attorneys for each.

For example.

To allows someone to deal with the payment of routine bills whilst you are in hospital temporarily.
If you are in business, you could create another GPA granting a business partner the ability to make specific business decisions when you are out of the country for an extended time.

GPAs are perhaps most commonly used in a commercial environment to enable someone to execute documents on behalf of the donor.

The cost options for a General Power of Attorney are shown in the following table;

Service	Per Person	Per Couple
General Power of Attorney	£75	£125