Very briefly it is a legal document which authorises a person or persons (known as “the Attorney”)appointed by you to act on your behalf – usually in connection with property or financial matters.

While you are fit and well, and mentally competent to handle your own affairs, there is obviously no problem. However, there can come a time when for one reason or another (e.g. a stroke, dementia, Alzheimer’s, brain damage caused by accident, or simply old age etc) when you lose, or start to lose, your mental competence and ability. If this should unfortunately happen to you, and you do not have an LPA (Lasting Power of Attorney) in place, then the consequences could be very severe indeed. In particular,your family or close friends may well be powerless to assist you financially since nobody would be able to access your bank account, realise your assets,pay bills etc.

If you become mentally incompetent, and you do not have an LPA in place, then usually the only road your family can go down is to apply to the Court of Protection for a court order – this is an extremely expensive and complicated process, and should be avoided if at all possible.

A Lasting Power of Attorney could be useful in those cases where the person concerned is not mentally incompetent but is housebound or otherwise has difficulty in getting around and is therefore very restricted in his or her ability to manage his or her affairs. (e.g. if someone is struck down with multiple sclerosis, a stroke etc.)

There is no doubt whatsoever that an LPA will greatly assist your family and/or friends at the time when you need help the most.

One way of looking at the situation is to regard an LPA as an insurance policy – you take one out and hope you never need it – but if you should need it then it will be a very important tool in looking after and maintaining you.

An LPA is a fairly lengthy document running to some 12 pages and the cost is usually in the region of £275.00 plus VAT. In addition, it must be registered with the Court of Protection before it can be acted on and the registration fee is presently £120.00. However, we believe that this is a small price to pay compared to the expenditure which would be incurred if it became necessary to make an application to the Court of Protection.

Please remember – if you lose your mental competence, it will be too late to make an LPA. The earlier you make one, the better it will be for all concerned.

If you would like to discuss the matter further, please do not hesitate to get in touch. If you wish we can also discuss with you another form of LPA – a personal welfare LPA. An attorney for personal welfare may make any decision which you could make about your welfare. e.g. where you live and with whom, accessing your personal information such as medical records etc.

Furthermore, you can, if you so wish, expressly authorise your attorney to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment.

Get in touch

To see how we can help you with your LPA, please call 0161 436 9840 or send an enquiry to enquiries@burkeandclarke.co.uk