Take control over your finances

If your health deteriorates, whether it’s in the long or short term,and you’re unable to make decisions for yourself then a Finance LPA means you can put your money management into the hands of someone you trust.

Your LPA can be implemented if you lose mental capacity or even if you’re out of action for another reason. 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?

Whatever life throws at you, if you have an LPA, you can rest easy knowing you’re protected.

By creating an LPA, you can nominate someone (or a group of people) you trust to act on your behalf, making sure things are handled in your best interests. They can manage your finances, making sure everything runs smoothly and bills don’t pile up, effectively meaning business as usual until you’re ready to take the reigns again.

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 completely flexible for the donor whilst they have capacity!

How a Finance LPA Protects You

Also known as a Property and Financial Affairs LPA, a Finance LPA gives you the ability to have someone else you’ve nominated handle certain aspects of your affairs on your behalf. This could be if you lose capacity to deal with things yourself, or simply if you choose to hand over control to an Attorney for another reason (for example you’re out of the country or just wanting to take some time off!).

The important thing is that the LPA is in place should you need it. You may get stuck overseas, or you may have an illness that puts you out of action. In those cases, the LPA is ready to go, meaning your affairs are handled how you’d like them to be and aren’t just left unmanaged.

A Finance LPA can cover things such as:

Accessing your bank accounts, ISAs or stocks and shares
Handling any benefits claims you have
Paying and querying bills on your behalf
Financing any care needs or other support you need
Collecting rent on property you own
Managing any businesses you own or run
Buying or selling property on your behalf

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 handle things yourself.

Getting an LPA to Support Your Mental Health

If you struggle with you mental health, you could find yourself in a situation where you’re incapable of managing decisions about your finances. If, for example, you were sectioned, you may want to have an LPA in place with your pre-determined wishes about your finances.

A Finance LPA can cover things such as:

What happens to any benefits you receive
What happens to money in your bank accounts
If money should be paid to a person or company on your behalf
Any other decisions around finance, business and property

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. Check out our Health and Welfare LPAs which could also provide support in these circumstances.

When Does the LPA Become Active?

Your Property and Financial Affairs 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, 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 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.

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 some decisions regarding your business or property you own, 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. The handy thing about Financial LPAs is that you can even set different wishes dependent on why the Attorney is acting on your behalf: you can set up different sets of instructions for different situations.

If you choose to revoke the LPA, you can do so by contacting the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), but it’s possible to make some changes to your Attorneys without needing to revoke it completely. For example, you can remove an Attorney if you wish, by providing a written statement to the OPG called a “partial deed of revocation”. This is handy if, say, you’ve got several people listed but one of them can’t act as an Attorney anymore, or you’ve simply changed your mind.

Adding a new Attorney to an LPA isn’t as straightforward, however. If you wish to add someone to your LPA, or make changes to your wishes within the document, you will need to revoke the existing version and create a whole new LPA. Remember, you can only make changes to an LPA 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 For Both

Our LPA pack contains an individual Finance LPA and Health LPA which 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

Jake owns a medium sized company in the UK that sees him travel overseas fairly regularly. During one of his trips abroad, he’s taken ill and needs to spend several weeks in hospital. Although he has a wife in the UK who knows enough about the business to manage things until he gets back, because she isn’t an official owner of the business, she’s unable to gain access to any of the business accounts or finances.

Aside from his wife, Jake also has a manager who can handle most of the daily running of the business, but has similar issues when it comes to being able to access and manage certain aspects of the business without Jake’s presence, such as authorising payments and make business decisions. Whilst Jake is overseas for several weeks, important tasks pile up at home and it means that once he’s back, there’s a lot of paperwork and other things for him to sort out to try and minimise the damage to the business, when he should be recuperating.

How would an LPA help Jake?

If Jake had put a Finance LPA in place to protect his business, whatever happened, he could have nominated both his wife and his manager as Attorneys. This would have meant that he had two individuals who could officially handle the different aspects of the business on his behalf, including both financial and business decisions.

Jake could have then felt confident that even though he was overseas, things were still running smoothly back home, and that once he returned he could have taken more time away from work to recuperate without the stress of having to sort out the mess which had accumulated whilst he was away.

Case Two

Steven is a single parent with two children who has separated from his wife. He has always struggled with his mental health, but after separating from his wife in difficult circumstances, he finds himself struggling to cope and eventually needs to take time off work, and his children go to stay with their grandparents.

Steven’s closest friend, Gary, can see how much Steven is struggling to manage basic daily tasks and wants to help Steven manage things, including his bills and the financial responsibilities he has for his children including paying for their school meals and trips. As Steven isn’t on speaking terms with his wife, he’s struggling to keep everything running smoothly for both him and his children.

As Gary is only a friend, he doesn’t have any rights to access any accounts or speak to any of his creditors on his behalf. This is causing more stress for Steven as he’s aware than things are piling up because he’s unable to deal with things at the moment. The grandparents are happy to temporarily look after the children, but they are unable to financially support them as they are also on low incomes.

How would an LPA help Steven?

If Steven had created a Financial LPA and named Gary as his Attorney, this would have given him the legal right to access Steven’s accounts for him and make payment on his behalf. This could have supported his children by providing things they needed on a daily basis and taken the pressure off Steven, knowing that their needs are still being met.

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.