Why Setup a Lasting Power of Attorney?

We offer a friendly, no fuss service making the process as simple and stress-free for our clients as possible.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) allows you to plan in advance who would manage your affairs if you were unable to do so yourself.

This legal document can be used with your consent, or when you lack mental capacity to make your own decisions.

You can appoint up to 4 attorneys and state whether they should always act together, or whether each one can act on their own. The power can be used on a permanent or temporary basis – for example if you were out of the country or in hospital for a period.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney:

  • Property and Financial Affairs
  • Health and Welfare

In England and Wales, the fee to register a Lasting Power of Attorney costs £82 each per person for the Property and Finance LPA and the Health and Welfare LPA, so if you register both, that’s £164.

While it is possible to create your own Lasting Powers of Attorney, this can be complex and there are many ways that will invalidate your LPA or indeed mean that the choices you make are not well thought through. This is why we always recommend that you always seek professional help and advice from our experts to ensure you get this important legal document right first time.

Property and Affairs

Having a Property and Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney in place allows you to decide and plan who would manage your money and other assets if you were unable to do so yourself. This includes:

  • manage your bank or building society accounts
  • pay your bills
  • collect your benefits or pension
  • sell your home
  • speak to pension and utility providers over the telephone on your behalf

A Property and Affairs LPA allows elected Attorneys to deal with the property and financial aspects of your estate when you are no longer physically or mentally capable to undertake matters yourself. This could be temporary or permanent and could be vital for you or to help protect your loved ones to continue paying your bills or collecting your pensions. It is important to note this is equally as important for the bigger decisions, like selling property or paying Care Fees, maintaining and managing your investments and making sure you have enough money to provide for your needs during the rest of your life.

Without a Property and Affairs LPA, banks, financial institutions, and utility companies will not speak to your loved ones or allow them any information or control over your accounts. Upon being notified that someone has lost mental capacity many financial institutions will freeze your accounts until proof of the LPA and who the Attorneys are is registered with them which can take months or in some cases years!

Health and Welfare

A Lasting Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare ensures that your attorneys are involved in decisions relating to your health. This could include:

  • decisions on life sustaining treatment and end of life care
  • speaking to doctors and social workers on your behalf
  • signing a consent form for medical treatment
  • making decisions about care needs

A Health and Welfare LPA is a legal document drawn up to be used in the event of an individual becoming mentally incapacitated. The document nominates Attorneys to act and make decisions on behalf of the person who has created the LPA. It is never too early to consider setting up a Health and Welfare LPA as there are a whole host of medical and care needs you may encounter in your lifetime. By being pro-active you will have the immediate support of your Attorney’s when you need them most and empower your loved ones to have the flexibility to make the best choices appropriate to your situation. Talking to your GP, selecting a care home or making a care plan with social services would all be covered under a Health and Welfare LPA.

It is an incredibly sad fact that one person in the UK develops dementia every three minutes. From the age of 18 we are treated by the law as adults. If you have an accident or illness that suddenly prevents you from having the mental capacity to make your own decisions, control does not automatically pass to your next of kin, as many people mistakenly believe.

Unless you have an LPA in place, your loved ones will not be able to act on your behalf and will potentially be prevented from carrying out your wishes about your care and medical treatment. Should you need care, the local authority could decide which care home you go into, while taking control of your finances to help fund your care fees. Your spouse, partner or family will have no say in the matter, they cannot demand you are moved to a different care home if they are unhappy with the level of care you are receiving. All they can do is request a move.

Our Pricing

If you instruct Wills and Bills Ltd, our service will include:

  • completion of all paperwork
  • ensuring that all the people involved have signed the appropriate paperwork
  • registering your Lasting Power of Attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian
  • Additional support with any follow up queries
  SINGLE LPA – Health OR Finance DOUBLE LPA – Health AND Finance
Consultation (pp) £165 £330
This includes the registration fee of £82

Impact of not having an LPA in place

Watch this 3-minute feature from The One Show that shows the importance of having a Lasting Power of Attorney in place and the negative impact not having one can have on your life.

Learn more about Lasting Power of Attorney from Money Saving Expert, Martin Lewis.

Reasons To Use Our Lasting Power of Attorney Services?

If you do not set up an LPA for your financial and health decisions, initially someone from the Court of Protection or Social Services may be appointed to make decisions on your behalf. Your loved ones will then need to apply to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship, to essentially grant the same powers as an LPA, after you have lost mental capacity. This process can take over a year, cost thousands in court fees and once granted there will continue to be a heavy amount of work, oversight and governance from the Court of Protection over the powers you have been given and the decisions you make on behalf of your loved one. For these reasons, the cost and time saving alone makes setting up your Lasting Powers of Attorney in advance an obvious choice. It is always recommended that an LPA should be registered immediately so that it is ready for use and application for your benefit from the outset, should your physical or mental capacity become impaired.

Deciding who should be your Power of Attorney can be difficult. A recent report, conducted by Co-op Legal Services, has found that 79% of respondents over the age of 45-years have not made a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) because they do not completely trust their younger relatives to make financial decisions on their behalf when and if they were to lose capacity, with 35% claiming they have no intention of creating a Lasting Power of Attorney at all.

The report also found that 74% of those aged between 65 and 74-years-old have so far failed to make a Lasting Power of Attorney, and worryingly 67% of those over 75-years-old have not made a Lasting Power of Attorney, entrusting their loved ones to make their health and financial decisions when and if they lose capacity.

Increasingly, the older generation feels as though they are unable to trust their younger relatives with their financial decisions as they age. There is no right or wrong answer to this question, except to say that we will all have to start trusting someone to look after us and our affairs when we are at our most vulnerable.

The alternative of doing nothing will enable the local authorities to decide what is best or appoint a Professional Attorney. We would always strongly recommend against both and rarely find Clients who are comfortable with a stranger being court appointed to make decisions and manage their affairs and a professional appointed as your Attorney cannot be removed unless you make a new LPA or through a court order. They will also charge your Estate ongoing fees and charges for their time and services, eroding your family wealth. We therefore believe that appointing your most trusted nearest and dearest, be that family or friends, really is the best course of action in most cases.

Waiting times from mailing to registration confirmation for a Lasting Power of Attorney can vary seasonally and based on the level of demand the Office of the Public Guardian is experiencing.