There are two kinds of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA), one that deals with your Property & Financial Affairs and one that deals with your Health and Welfare.

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These are critical legal documents that enable you to give legal authority to a person or persons who you trust, called Attorneys, to manage your affairs for you or make decisions on your behalf, when you are not in a position to do so yourself, for example following an accident, stroke or the onset of dementia.

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What is a LPA?

An LPA is a legal document that lets you (the Donor - also known as ‘the person giving this Lasting Power of Attorney’) choose a person/persons Attorney/Attorneys that you trust to make decisions on your behalf at a future time when you may not be able to make such decisions due to mental incapacity or simply no longer wish to make such decisions.

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What can an attorney do?

What powers you give to your attorneys and when you give them the power to act are entirely your decision. We recommend that you give your attorney the power to act immediately on registration; otherwise, they may be required to prove you no longer have capacity every time they act on your behalf, which can make your LPA less useful.

 

Dispelling a Common Myth:

A common belief is that Powers of Attorney are only useful for old people who may lose capacity soon. While they are undoubtedly useful for this, they have lots of other uses.

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Another common misconception is that ‘I do not need an LPA because we have a joint account or all our finances are joint.’ Unfortunately, this is not strictly true. Banks can and often do freeze accounts if one party is incapacitated. Additionally, from a health point of view, doctors are extremely limited in what they can tell you without the patient’s consent. The Power of Attorney is the best way of proving consent to health and welfare professionals.