Why use a solicitor to make a Lasting Power of Attorney

“But it’s just form and all you need to do is add in some names, addresses and dates of birth – how hard can that be!!!!”

This is something that is often said about Lasting Powers of Attorney when clients hear how much they cost to do. The forms themselves are deceptively simple BUT and it really is a big but they are also forms that allow someone else to:

• have full access to all your money and sell your home (property and finance)

• decided on all medical decisions AND where you will live, if you can’t (health and welfare)

Everyone knows they need to make a Will, but here is the thing, a Will comes into effect when you die. By definition you are not around or affected by its contents. The worst that will happen is someone might be cross they did not get what they wanted.

With Powers of Attorney you are giving power to someone to make decisions about everything about you if you don’t want to or can’t make those decisions yourself. This means that you will be affected by what they do even down to where you spend your final years and how much money you have.

Making a power of attorney is complicated – as it should be – given the power that is being potentially handed over. There are a number of things to consider:

• Do you actually want to make such a power?

• Is someone else trying to make you do it?

• Is one really needed?

• Do you know what would happen and who would make decisions if you didn’t make an LPA?

• Do you truly understand what you are signing and what your attorneys can do?

• Who do you want as attorneys?

• Do they have the time, the skills and the ability to deal with matters?

• Do they get on with the other attorneys?

• Have you appointed the right people? If you get this wrong then something that may appear simple eg selling your home and buying a new one may end up needing a Court of Protection application.

• Have you appointed your attorneys the right way – there are three ways to choose from ? Again, if you get this wrong you could end up with a document that doesn’t work if someone dies or goes bankrupt?

• Have you appointed them to act at the right time? With property and finances there are two choices and it is important you understand the difference.

• If you decide to have back up attorneys do you understand when they will act and how they will be “activated” to do so.

• Do you understand what decisions about end of life care your attorneys can make and when they are able to make them?

• Do you want to add in any preferences or instructions? Do you understand the difference? Could such instructions make the LPA unworkable?

• Do you know that the documents have to be registered before they can be used?

All of the above is needed to be considered BEFORE the document is even drafted. Appoint the wrong people, the wrong way to act at the wrong time and what you are left with is either a document that is useless or worse one that means what you were expecting to happen doesn’t. It could also mean that more is spent on putting everything right than if you paid a solicitor to write one in the first place and no-one – not even the solicitor wants that. On top of that, IF, there is an issue and a solicitor make your LPA then they have to sort out the problem at no cost to you – a great insurance to have.

These documents affect your life, your body and everything you have ever worked for – surely that is too important to not get advice to ensure what you want is what you get.