A Lasting Power of Attorney appoints one or more trusted people who can act on your behalf and, if necessary, make decisions in your best interests, should you not be able to do so at any point in the future.

We believe that having Lasting Powers of Attorney in place is just as important as having a Will.

There are two types - Property & Financial Affairs LPA and Health & Welfare LPA. It is ideal to have both types as they each protect your interests in different respects.

The alternative to setting up Lasting Powers of Attorney is to go through the Court of Protection, which is very expensive, takes a long time and could mean that an uninterested third party decides how your affairs should be managed!

Lasting Powers of Attorney cannot be set up once you have lost mental capacity and so the right time to have these set up is now, before it is too late.

These allow loved ones to protect you and manage your financial affairs whilst you are still alive, but are unable to do so yourself. People can lose mental capacity due to accidents, illnesses and sudden unpredicted events, such as strokes, which is why we recommend that all clients of all ages have Powers of Attorney put in place.

LPAs for Property and Financial Affairs ensure that should you lose mental capacity; your chosen Attorneys will be able to manage your affairs in your best interests.

Lasting Powers of Attorney for Health and Welfare cover a client’s interests beyond merely his or her money, property and assets. This document relates to things such as choice of care home, who can visit the client (or, indeed, the ability to stop someone who is distressing the client from visiting him/her) and what decision should be made regarding life-sustaining treatment.

It is very difficult to persuade the Court of Protection to make decisions on Health and Welfare (and, even if they do, it will be very costly and time consuming) which means it’s vital that these documents are set up by a client when they have mental capacity and before it is too late.