A power of attorney is a document giving someone the power to act for you. Some of our clients want a family member to be able to do this if for example now or at a later time they want help with their affairs or if they lose their capacity to make decisions themselves.

An ordinary power of attorney can only be used while the donor has mental capacity. A Lasting Power of Attorney will continue to be effective beyond that point.

By having in place an effective Lasting Power of Attorney, problems may later be avoided if a trusted family member or friend needs to deal with your affairs because you cannot.

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA for short). One is for your financial affairs (a Property and Financial Affairs LPA). The other is for your personal welfare (a Health and Welfare LPA).

You can appoint more than one attorney for your Property and Financial Affairs LPA. You can use this LPA as soon as it is registered with the Court if you wish. If you do, then your attorney/s can act for you on your instructions until you are incapable of being able to make these decisions for yourself. From that point on the power ‘endures’ and is not automatically cancelled.

With a Health and Welfare LPA you can still have more than one attorney for your personal care and welfare and the LPA is only activated once you are judged as not being able to care for yourself.

There are strict requirements for the creation and use of an LPA that require legal advice. You should contact Austin Ray if you are considering establishing an LPA or need to use one to administer the affairs of someone else. We can assist in understanding the effects of making an LPA, drafting them and dealing with the formalities of registering them.

At Austin Ray we also deal with the registration of Enduring Powers of Attorney already in existence.

If someone already has capacity problems, Austin Ray can guide you through the Court of Protection and Deputyship process which enables a Court appointed person to manage the affairs of a person who cannot manage their own but who does not have an effective Power of Attorney in place.

Whilst assisting in all these areas we put the needs of our clients first and are particularly keen to act in a way to ensure protection of our clients, especially those who may be vulnerable. Please see information on our web site about our Elderly Client Services.