The importance of making your Lasting Power of Attorney
It has been stated by Lakshmi Turner, the Chief Executive of Solicitors For The Elderly, that making a Lasting Power of Attorney is the most powerful and important legal document an individual can have.
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). The first relates to property and financial matters and the other to health and welfare.
The property and financial affairs LPA is designed for you to appoint an attorney to make a range of decisions, including buying and selling a house and other assets, so that they can include your business, dealing with your tax affairs, operating bank accounts and claiming benefits on your behalf.
A personal welfare LPA is very different and enables your attorney to make decisions regarding such matters as your living accommodation and care, giving consent or refusing medical treatment on your behalf plus day to day decisions about you, this could include what you wear and your diet.
Your personal welfare LPA can only be used if you have lost capacity.
Statistics show that 1 in 3 people over 65 develop dementia. However, you cannot assume that your family will be able to gain access to your money, even if it is to pay for your care, so the key is to act early. The time to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney is when you have mental capacity. Once you have lost your capacity it is just too late.
Unfortunately, many people leave it too late and their relatives must apply to the court of protection in order to sort out their financial affairs. This is a very drawn out process and causes significant delay.
It is a common misunderstanding that powers of attorney do not affect them because they are well, however this is not the case.
As a result of increased life expectancy people are living longer and longer, but it also means that the number of people who get dementia is increasing all the time. Furthermore, it is not just for the elderly. Younger people may become incapacitated through accident or illness.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a powerful document. Those who enter into a power of attorney will find it most reassuring to know that if you could not make a decision for yourself in the future; your chosen person will make those decisions on your behalf. Making an LPA ensures the person you want to make those decisions for you will be able to do so. This also prevents someone you may not trust from making an application to the Court for a deputyship order and taking on the responsibility for making those decisions.
Making an LPA can significantly reduce problems that may occur in the future for you and your family.
Unfortunately there is an alarming new report that 84% of people want their loved ones to make decisions in the event of illness or accident but only 7% have created a Lasting Power of Attorney to enable this to happen.
The only way that you can ensure that your loved ones can make those decisions on your behalf if you become incapable is to go ahead and make a lasting power of attorney. So you therefore need to act now to safeguard your wishes in the event of accidents or illnesses like dementia.
To discuss making a Lasting Power of Attorney please call Monika Volsing on 0113 320 5000 or email wills@winstonsolicitors.co.uk.
