Discount on Lasting Powers of Attorney

Our normal legal fee for drafting Lasting Powers of Attorney for Health and Welfare and also Financial Affairs is £750 + VAT and during November 2023 this will be reduced to £500 plus VAT, to take advantage of this offer please call 01992 422128 today.

Why make a Lasting Power of Attorney?

There is a common misconception that family have an automatic right to manage your money and property if you should be unlucky enough to become mentally incapable of doing so yourself. Another misconception is that you don’t need to make a Power of Attorney (which is a document which authorises someone else to handle your affairs for you), until you have become incapable of managing your property and money.

The fact is that nobody has the right to manage these things for you unless you have specifically given them this authority in a valid and registered Lasting Power of Attorney. This applies even to spouses or civil partners unless it is an unrestricted joint account. Any Power of Attorney has to be made whilst you have the mental capacity to do so. It is too late once you have lost capacity.

Where money and/or property need to be managed, if you become mentally incapable of doing this and you haven’t got a Lasting Power of Attorney, an application needs to be made to the Court of Protection for what is called a ‘Deputy Order’ so that someone else can do this. A Deputy Order is where the Court authorises someone or an organisation to do this, but subject to certain conditions and restrictions. As you can imagine, this is both a lengthy and expensive process and there is on going expense for the rest of the incapacitated person’s life or until they regain capacity. Since the Deputy is supervised by the Office of the Public Guardian this attracts fees payable annually. In addition, an annual Indemnity Bond (a type of insurance) is required. It can take many months to obtain the Order. If there is a dispute, this will mean that it will take much longer and the outcome is uncertain.

It is also the case that almost anyone can apply for the Deputy Order provided they are approved by the Court, but they may not be a person or organisation who you would choose if you could. Social Services for example, often apply for and successfully obtain such Orders. If the Deputy is a solicitor or an accountant, they are entitled to have their professional costs paid as well.

With a Lasting Power of Attorney, once the document has been made and successfully registered, there are no further charges. So you can see that it is usually preferable to make a Lasting Power of Attorney.

A separate Lasting Power of Attorney can also be made to authorise your Attorney to make decisions about your health and care, but this type of Lasting Power of Attorney can only be used if you lack capacity to make health and care decisions. Whereas with a Finance Lasting Power of Attorney, you can decide whether it can be used when you have capacity or restricted to if and when you lose capacity to manage your money and property.

There are other types of Powers of Attorney, but this article relates solely to Lasting Powers of Attorney which are most commonly used today.

Further information can be obtained by appointment about any type of Power of Attorney whether in existence, or to be made.

Please contact us on 01992 422128 to arrange an appointment to make your Lasting Powers of Attorney.