Protect your future by making a Lasting Power of Attorney

What happens if you become incapacitated and unable to make decisions for yourself? Making a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) lets you take control of your future by allowing you to choose who makes decisions on your behalf if anything happens to you.

How Can a Lasting Power of Attorney Give You Peace of Mind?

None of us know what’s around the corner, but having an LPA in place gives you peace of mind that whatever life throws at you, you’re prepared. No matter what, you want your loved ones to be safe and your assets to be protected.

By creating an LPA, you can nominate someone (or a group of people) you trust to act on your behalf, known as your “Attorney(s)”. They can access your finances, manage your personal affairs, plan your healthcare and observe your wishes as you choose. Dream team!

An LPA gives you complete control, even if you find yourself in a position where you’re unable to exercise it. You can choose when the document becomes active and revoke it again if the situation changes; it’s flexible.

Learn More About the Different Types of LPA…

Financial LPA

Make plans for how your finances can be used by your appointed attorney(s).

Learn More

Health and Welfare LPA

Use your LPA to determine how you’re cared for medically and who provides your personal care.

Learn More

FINANCIAL LPA

Safeguard Your Finances With an Airtight LPA

If the day ever comes where, for whatever reason, you’re not able to manage your finances for yourself, an LPA is vital in determining how your finances can and can’t be used.

A financial LPA can cover things like:

Decisions on selling and buying property
Managing bank, building society accounts and other finances
Collecting any benefits or tax credits
Dealing with any debts

Making an LPA gives you the power to elect someone you trust to deal with your finances on your behalf. If you’re out of the country and you run into issues, or simply have difficulties managing your accounts remotely, an LPA gives you trusted feet on the ground to handle the situation with the care and attention it deserves.

The LPA doesn’t have to cover all of your finances. If you only want to give someone power over part of your finances, such as certain bank accounts or property, you can do so.

The LPA doesn’t have to cover all of your finances. If you only want to give someone power over part of your finances, such as certain bank accounts or property, you can do so.

Health and Welfare LPA

Take Care of Your Health by Getting an LPA

If your health deteriorates and you’re unable to make decisions for yourself, a Health and Welfare LPA means you can put any health decisions in the hands of someone you trust.

A Health and Welfare LPA can cover things such as:

What medical care you receive
Who provides your personal care and what this entails
The contact allowed with you by certain people
Any decision around life-sustaining treatments

An LPA can help you put your future in the hands of someone you can rely on, so they can help you when you’re not in a position to help yourself.

Unlike a financial LPA, a Health and Care LPA can only be implemented if the person named in the document loses their mental capacity. It’s possible, however, to segregate each aspect of your care and make individual arrangements.

Who Can I Appoint as My Attorney?

Anyone you want! You can even nominate more than one attorney. This can be useful if your preferred option is unable to undertake the responsibility at the time, or if you want to split the responsibilities between multiple people. Any attorney appointed must meet the following criteria, though:

They must be at least 18 years of age.

They can be a family member, friend or professional acting on your behalf.

They can’t be in undischarged or interim bankruptcy if they’re going to be named on a financial LPA.

You must be confident that they’ve got the ability to make these decisions for you.

If you’re naming more than one attorney on the same LPA, you need to make sure they have a good relationship.

You need to have spoken to them before naming them as your attorney, and be sure they understand the responsibilities involved.

They’ll need to sign the LPA, officially accepting the role and responsibilities outlined in the document.

The document must include each attorney’s full name, address, date of birth, contact telephone number and email address.

Do I need an LPA if I’m married?

Most people assume that if you have a spouse, they’d automatically be given authority to deal with your finances and make decisions regarding your healthcare if you can’t do so yourself. This isn’t the case, and can cause additional undue stress should you be unable to deal with your affairs personally.

Having an LPA in place ensures that if you need your spouse to step in on your behalf, they can. This will give them official authority and make sure they can handle your affairs if they need to.

How Much Does an LPA Cost?

We offer a range of LPA services: Property and Finance, Health and Welfare, or both for a discounted price. Please keep in mind that the price below is the service charge. You’ll also be subject to a submission fee to officially register your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). As this varies on your circumstances, we can only give you a complete estimate on costs once we’ve got the necessary information.

Property and Finance LPA LPA

Manage your finances

£150.00 Per Document

A Financial LPA can be vital in determining how your finances can and can’t be used, if for some reason you’re unable to make that decision yourself.

Health and Welfare LPA

Take care of your health

£150.00 Per Document

A Health and Welfare LPA allows you to put the responsibility of your care in the hands of someone you trust, if the day ever comes where you’re unable to care for yourself.

Both LPAs

BEST VALUE OPTION

£240.00 For Both

Both LPAs together let you dictate how your finances and health care should be managed if you’re unable to make those decisions for yourself.

Why use our Professional LPA Service?

You’d like someone you trust to control your assets when you can’t manage them yourself.

You’ve got an illness which might prevent you from managing your assets personally.

You’re travelling or relocating overseas and you own a property or have assets in the UK.

To ensure family or friends are authorised to manage your assets if you can’t yourself.

In What Situations Might I Need an LPA?

By creating an LPA, you can nominate someone you trust to act on your behalf, known as your “Attorney”. Your attorney can access your finances, manage your personal affairs and healthcare and observe your wishes as you choose. Read the case studies below to see if an LPA could help you.

Case One

Peter owns his own business and has both a joint business account with his wife, Sally, as well as his own personal bank account. Peter is unexpectedly taken ill and is out of action in hospital for an undetermined amount of time. While some of his affairs relating to the business can be taken care of, such as the general day to day running of the office, the financial side requires someone to act in his place. Also, he needs someone to manage his personal debts and bank accounts.

As Sally is his legal spouse, she contacts his bank and other companies he deals with and tries to act on his behalf. She’s refused access to his accounts, even though she’s his wife. Sally assumed that since they were legally married, she’d be able to act on his behalf, after proving he’s unable to do so himself.

How would an LPA help Peter?

If Peter had created a Financial Lasting Power of Attorney and named Sally as his attorney, she would have been able to activate the LPA when Peter became incapacitated. This would have given her legal documentation to request access and managerial rights over Peter’s affairs, including his banks and other accounts such as utilities, creditors and businesses. Once Peter was better, the LPA could be revoked to allow him to take back control.

Case Two

Helen is a widower with three children. Although she has contact with all of them, she’s closest to her best friend Georgina. Helen is devastated to discover that she has a degenerative illness and talks to her friend Georgina about how she would like to be cared for in the future, if she wasn’t able to look after herself.

However, when Helen’s illness finally takes away her ability to communicate, she’s taken into a home. As Helen has no surviving spouse, her children are her next of kin and they make all of the decisions about her care. Georgina has tried several times to communicate Helen’s wishes to the children but they don’t listen. They argue amongst themselves about how to deal with Helen’s care, causing a lot of tension and upset.

How would an LPA help Helen?

If Helen had discussed creating a Lasting Power of Attorney with Georgina, she could have formalised their agreement and Georgina would be in charge of making decisions on Helen’s care. This would have superseded her children’s automatic roles as decision makers (being Helen’s only surviving next of kin) and would have ensured that her wishes were observed.

Questions

No, an attorney can be anyone who meets the criteria outlined on our page here.
In normal circumstances, any spouse named as an attorney in an LPA will lose their position if a marriage is dissolved. It’s possible, however, to include a clause in your LPA which will allow your spouse to continue acting as your attorney if you want them to.
Generally, your LPA will only be recognised in the jurisdiction where it was created. For example, an LPA created in England and Wales may not be recognised in Scotland or Northern Ireland. It depends entirely on the person you’re presenting it to (outside of the jurisdiction) as to whether they choose to act upon it or not.
You’ve got to apply to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) to register it. As soon as you receive confirmation that it’s been officially registered, the document is then legally binding. It won’t, however, become effective until you activate the LPA directly when required.

No. If there’s an LPA in place, any control the attorney had over the donors finances and estate ends upon death. The named attorney will need to notify the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) of the death, as well as provide them with a copy of the original document and a copy of the death certificate.
If you only appoint one attorney in your LPA and they die or become unable to complete their attorneyship for whatever reason, you’ll need to create a new agreement. You can, however, name more than one attorney in your LPA to prepare for such a scenario if you wish, by naming a Replacement Attorney.
This is fully your choice. You can give joint powers in decision making, appoint a lead attorney and name someone else to act if they are unable as a Replacement Attorney, or divide individual tasks to a set of individual attorneys as you see fit. Just be clear in the wording of your wishes and make sure they’re outlined clearly to avoid confusion.
Yes, you can revoke an attorney if you don’t want them acting for you anymore. You’ll need to do this officially, by creating a new LPA if you wish to appoint a new individual, or just notify the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) that you wish to cancel the document.