A Power of Attorney is a legal document that lets you appoint someone to make decisions for you. It is the arrangement most people assume a spouse or an adult child already has, and the one most families discover is missing at the point it is needed.
The types you will come across
In England and Wales there are three in ordinary use. A Lasting Power of Attorney, or LPA, is the current form and comes in two documents: Property and Financial Affairs, and Health and Welfare. An Enduring Power of Attorney is the older form, replaced in October 2007, and remains valid if it was signed before then. A General or Ordinary Power of Attorney is a short-term authority used while you still have capacity, for instance during a spell abroad, and it ends the moment capacity is lost.
Property and Financial Affairs
This covers bank accounts, bills, investments, benefits and the sale or transfer of property. It can be used with your permission while you still have capacity, which many clients find useful long before health becomes a concern.
Health and Welfare
This covers care arrangements, medical treatment and day-to-day welfare, including the decision on life-sustaining treatment if you choose to give it. It only comes into force once you can no longer make those decisions yourself.
Who you appoint
Attorneys must be over 18, must not be bankrupt where finances are concerned, and must be people whose judgement you would trust in a difficult year rather than a comfortable one. You can appoint more than one, either jointly, so every decision needs agreement, or jointly and severally, so any of them can act alone. Naming a replacement attorney is a small step that prevents the document failing if your first choice cannot act.
Registration and timing
An LPA has no effect until it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, and registration takes a number of weeks. The document must be signed while you still have mental capacity, with a certificate provider confirming you understood it. There is no way to arrange one retrospectively.
What it costs
The Office of the Public Guardian charges a registration fee for each LPA, so a couple putting all four documents in place pays four fees. Reductions and exemptions apply on lower incomes or certain benefits. Professional drafting is charged separately and is what stops the common errors: wrong attorney combinations, missing replacements, restrictions that make the document unusable in practice.
If there is no Power of Attorney
Nothing passes automatically to a spouse. The family must apply to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship order, which takes months, is supervised, carries ongoing fees and gives a judge the final say on who acts. In the meantime, accounts can be frozen, a property cannot be sold and care fees still have to be found.
Where it fits with the rest of your planning
A Power of Attorney protects decisions during your lifetime; a Will and Trusts deal with what happens afterwards. They are usually arranged together, because the same information settles both, and because a plan that covers only death leaves the harder years uncovered. Our guides to making a Will and to probate explain that second half.
If you would like your Lasting Powers of Attorney drafted and registered alongside the rest of your arrangements, we can take you through it in one conversation.
