Take control over your care

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.

Your LPA can be implemented if you lose your mental capacity, or if you choose, your Attorney can take control at any time you need their support. Don’t assume that your partner or spouse would automatically have authority to deal with everything, as this isn’t necessarily the case without a valid LPA!

How Can an LPA 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.

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 and specific instruction as you choose. Dream team!

An LPA gives you peace of mind that no matter what, there’s someone in your corner. If there ever comes a time when you can’t make decisions for yourself, you’ve got a trusted ally with your best interests at heart to deal with things for you.

How a Health and Welfare LPA Protects You

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
Where you’re cared for
Your daily routines, and even what you wear and your diet

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. This can include very specific instructions and preferences, for example “I’d prefer to receive care from Pinderfields Hospital” or “my attorneys must ensure that I am not prescribed medication X”.

Getting an LPA to Support Your Mental Health

If you struggle with your mental health, you could find yourself in a situation where you’re incapable of managing decisions about your own health. If, for example, you were sectioned, you may want to have an LPA in place with your pre-determined wishes and instructions about your care. This can take a lot of pressure off, and mean you don’t have to worry about having your voice taken away – someone will be there to back your corner.

You can activate your LPA even if you’re not in crisis; that’s totally your decision! If you’re feeling like everything’s getting a bit much, and you’d like your Attorney to stand in to handle your day-to-day financial responsibilities, you can do that with a Financial LPA. When you’re ready to take over again, you can go ahead and do so. Easy! 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.

When Does the LPA Become Active?

Your LPA will automatically become active either when you choose it to, or when you lose mental capacity to make decisions for yourself. A loss of capacity isn’t assumed based on a diagnosis, for example, even if you have dementia this doesn’t automatically mean you qualify; you could still be able to make some decisions for yourself. So how it is decided, and who makes that call?

Deciding when the Donor (the person who’s made the LPA) has “lost capacity” isn’t always a straightforward process at all. It can be decided by the Attorney, the Donor themselves or a medical professional. There isn’t a test or a checklist to follow, which can make it difficult to determine, but part of putting trust in your Attorney to manage your affairs is also reflected in allowing them to decide when it’s time for them to step in and take control.

You may choose to let your Attorney to take over decisions for you even if you have capacity. If for example you’re struggling with your mental health, or another health condition that may be leaving you feeling overwhelmed, you may not feel like dealing with the added pressures of decision making and would like the support of your Attorney by allowing them to make certain decisions outlined in your LPA for you. It’s all up to you!

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 person 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.

Can I Change my LPA and Take Back Control?

Yes! You’re not completely handing over control to your Attorney long-term, if you don’t want to. If, for example, you were in hospital and your Attorney used the LPA to make healthcare choices for you, once you leave hospital and are fighting fit again, you simply let them know you no longer need them to act on your behalf. You don’t need to officially end, or “revoke” the LPA, so it can still be kept active in the event you need it again in the future.

If you do want to fully revoke the LPA, you can do so by contacting the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), but if you only want to make changes to your Attorneys it may not be necessary. You can remove an Attorney if you wish, by sending a written statement to the OPG called a “partial deed of revocation”. This is handy if, for example, you’ve got several people listed but one of them is not longer able to act on your behalf, or you’ve simply changed your mind.

Adding a new Attorney isn’t as straightforward, however. If you wish to choose someone else to be added to your LPA, or make changes to your wishes in the document, you will need to revoke the existing version and create a whole new LPA. Remember, if you want to change or revoke an LPA you can only make these changes if you have capacity at the time.

How Much Does an LPA Cost?

We offer three types of LPAs: Financial, Health and Welfare, and a combination of the two at 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.

Financial 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.

Finance & Health LPA

BEST VALUE OPTION

£240.00 Per Document

Our combined Finance & Health LPA lets 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.

How Does an LPA Work in Practice?

Sometimes it’s easier to understand how an LPA can help you by thinking of it in a real-life scenario, so here we’ll present some case studies to help you understand how much of a benefit they could be to your and your partner.

Case One

Mike and Charlotte are long-term partners and have lived together for over 8 years. One day, Charlotte is in a car accident on her way home from work and suffers several serious injuries. She ends up being placed in an induced coma whilst her condition is stabilised, and the medical professionals in charge of her care look to her parents for guidance on decisions around her care. Even though Mike has been in a relationship with Charlotte for a long time, as they are not married, he is not legally viewed as her next of kin, despite having a better understanding of what Charlotte would have wanted.

Because Mike and Charlotte’s parents have never particularly seen eye to eye, Charlotte’s parents make all of the decisions without consulting Mike. This really upsets him and causes a lot of bitterness within the family. When Charlotte finally starts to recuperate, she is in the middle of a huge family dispute about her care and wishes that Mike would have been the one to have control over her healthcare needs when she wasn’t able to make those calls herself, as she isn’t happy with some of the choices made by her parents.

How would an LPA help Peter?

If Charlotte had a Health and Welfare LPA in place prior to the accident, she could have nominated Mike as her Attorney. In the LPA, she could have expressed any wishes she had as to how she’d like to be cared for if she was ever incapacitated.

By having the LPA, as soon as Charlotte had lost capacity, Mike would have had the legal authority to make all decisions regarding her care when she was in hospital, according to her letter of wishes. Charlotte’s parents wouldn’t have been able to make any decisions and the medical professionals would have been bound by the wishes in the LPA, communicated by Mike. This would have saved them from disagreements and a lot of stress.

Case Two

Helen is a single parent with three children who has separated from her husband. She has always struggled with her mental health, but after separating from her husband in difficult circumstances, she finds herself unable to cope and eventually needs to spend some time as an in-patient at the local hospital.

Even though she’s not with her husband anymore, and they’re not on speaking terms, he still is legally classed as her next of kin as they aren’t divorced. Her closest friend, Gail, visits her at the hospital and makes suggestions to the doctors about how she’d like to be cared for, but as she has no legal rights to give guidance over her care, they aren’t able to take it on board.

As Helen’s children are only young, they aren’t old enough to make any decisions on behalf of their mum, and there isn’t any other close family they can get in touch with. Gail finds it really difficult and frustrating that she’s unable to support her friend officially and hand a hand in her health care whilst she’s in hospital. Helen’s husband isn’t interested in taking responsibility for her care.

How would an LPA help Helen?

If Helen had discussed creating a Lasting Power of Attorney with Gail, she could have made a formalised agreement and Gail would be in charge of making decisions on Helen’s care. This would have superseded her estranged husband’s automatic roles as decision maker and would have ensured that Helen’s 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.