Do you need to put Lasting Powers of Attorney in place?

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a document that allows you to appoint people or professionals that you trust to manage your affairs and make decisions on your behalf. A person who makes a Lasting Power of Attorney is called a donor, and a person or a professional who is appointed under a Lasting Power of Attorney is known as an attorney. Lasting Powers of Attorney can be extremely useful for planning for your future, for example if you were to ever have an accident, or suffer an illness such as dementia, heart disease or a stroke.

There are two forms of Lasting Powers of Attorney, one which covers Property and Financial Affairs and a second which covers Health and Welfare.

A Lasting Power of Attorney covering Health and Welfare allows your chosen attorneys to make health and welfare decisions on the donor’s behalf but only at a time in the future when the donor lacks capacity to make such decisions. Such decisions may include those concerning what medical treatment you receive and whether you should receive life-sustaining medical care. Attorneys appointed under a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney can also make decisions about where you live (i.e., whether you should move into a care home) and decisions about your daily routine.

A Lasting Power of Attorney covering Property and Financial Affairs allows your chosen attorneys to make decisions about your finances and property either straight away (once the document is in place), or at a time in the future when you are unable to or lack the capacity to make such decisions.  Under this document, your chosen attorneys can manage your bank and building society accounts, sell your property (where necessary), pay your bills and collect your pensions and benefits for you. You might feel more comfortable appointing a professional attorney to act for you under this type of Lasting Power of Attorney, as they would have particular knowledge and expertise that could help to reduce the burden on your family and friends.

If you do not put Lasting Powers of Attorney in place when you have capacity, and then you later lose capacity to make decisions on your behalf, the only way that your trusted individuals will be able to manage your financial affairs would be for them to make an application to court for a Deputyship order. This process is likely to be both extremely lengthy and costly. A similar application is (in practice) almost impossible to achieve for health or welfare decisions.

If you want to ensure that your trusted individuals can make decisions for you on your behalf in the future when you might not be able to make them yourself, you should definitely consider putting Lasting Powers of Attorney in place.