Lasting powers of attorney
By setting up a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in advance the donor gives the attorney the legal right to deal with his or her affairs, even if the donor later becomes incapacitated. An attorney must always act in accordance with the terms of the Mental Capacity Act, and most importantly must always act in the donor's best interests.
The property and financial affairs LPA enables attorneys to deal with day-to-day finances, manage investments, pay bills and essentially anything that a donor could have done for themselves (subject to any restrictions imposed by the donor). It is often assumed that a relative could deal with these matters anyway, however due to date protection rules organisations will only correspond with you or a person with legal authority to act on your behalf.
The health and welfare LPA enables attorneys to make decisions regarding care and treatment, and can also give attorneys the authority to give or refuse consent to life sustaining treatment.
Our fees
When assisting with LPAs we offer package prices to cover all of the following:
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Advising the donor on what an LPA is and the procedure involved;
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Completion of the LPA;
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Acting as independent certificate provider;
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Acting as independent witness;
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Writing to the chosen attorneys sending the document they must sign to confirm they are happy to act, and explaining what is involved in being appointed as an attorney;
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Completion of registration forms;
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Assessing eligibility for an exemption or remission of the OPG application fee, and if applicable completing the application;
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Storing the original document for your lifetime and providing certified copies for you to use.