Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs)

You should take care over who you choose to appoint as your attorney. An attorney should:

• Be trustworthy
• Be over the age of 18
• Have the necessary skills and understanding to enable them to make appropriate decisions as required on your behalf
• Not be bankrupt or have an current IVA in place  (if being appointed as property and financial affairs attorney).

If you appoint more than one attorney, you can elect to appoint them to act jointly and severally (which means they can act together or independently of each other) or jointly (which means that both must be included in all decisions).

There is also an option for the donor to  appoint attorneys using a combination of these i.e. jointly for some decisions and jointly and severally for other issues.

You can also appoint replacement attorneys in case one or both of your attorneys dies before you or cannot continue to act as your attorney for some other reason e.g. bankruptcy or simply not wishing to continue to act in the role.

For an LPA to be valid, at the time of creating the document(s) the donor must fully understand scope of the matters the attorney could deal with and also the powers they are giving to the attorney..

The donor will need to read the LPA (or have it read to them) and sign the document in the presence of an independent witness. As soon as possible thereafter, someone independent called a Certificate Provider (for example a GP or the solicitor preparing the LPA) will need to sign a section of the form to confirm that at the time you signed the LPA:

• You understood the purpose of the LPA
• You understood the authority you would be giving to your attorney
• Nobody was pressurising or coercing you into making the LPA and
• There is no other reason which should have prevented the LPA from being created.

Your attorneys (and any replacement attorneys) will then need to consider the powers and obligations they are accepting by being appointed as an attorney and if they are comfortable with the role, they will sign the LPA in the presence of an independent witness.

Your attorney will only be able to use the LPA after you, your attorney and your certificate provider have signed it and the document has been registered at the Office of the Public Guardian. There is a registration fee for each lasting power of attorney to be registered.

If you lack capacity to deal with your own affairs and you do not have a valid attorneyship document, then an application can be made to the Court of Protection for an appropriate order to be made, such as appointing a person (known as a deputy) to make decisions on your behalf. This is both a costly and lengthy process. The deputy may not always be someone who you would have chosen to deal with your affairs if you had been able to make that decision for yourself so it is essential that you prepare LPAs in good time.

Where the Court of Protection appoints a deputy to manage your property and financial affairs on an ongoing basis, the deputy has to keep accounts, enter into a security bond, and report to the Office of the Public Guardian. They will charge an initial application fee, as well as an ongoing yearly fee to cover the cost of the court supervising the deputy’s work.