Lasting Power of Attorney

 

Templar Estate Planning will provide you with advice and guide you through the process of drafting and registering appropriate Lasting Power of Attorney documents for you and your loved ones. We do both personal and business Lasting Power of Attorney documents.

This short video explains about the benefits of setting up Lasting Powers of Attorney:

What is Lasting Power of Attorney?

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) has been serving the public for centuries. It is a powerful legal document that allows an individual (such as yourself) to appoint a person of their choice to look after their affairs should they at a later stage need assistance or lack the capacity to manage their affairs themselves.

Lasting power of attorney can be set up to manage:

  • Property & Financial Affairs – your estate
  • Health & Welfare – issues such as your care in later life or life sustaining treatment
  • Business – to allow your business to continue to operate smoothly

Contact us today, we are happy to explain all of this in more detail to you.

What is the benefit to you in having a Lasting Power of Attorney?

Through an LPA, you appoint a trusted person or persons to manage your affairs in your lifetime, mainly in case you become incapable of doing so but it can also be for convenience, for example, if you are regularly abroad. If you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney and lose capacity, your loved ones may have to go through a lot of processes at a large cost to be able to help you.

If you were to suffer an accident and be confined to bed or hospital, contract an illness or have a more serious accident that permanently incapacitates you or become mentally incapacitated as a result of old age or some other reason, then without a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in place, the ONLY way your financial affairs can be managed is by making an application (by a relative or someone close to you) being to the Court of Protection for Deputyship.

The application must provide personal information about themselves, their family, their own finances and the relationship with the person they wish to help care for. Medical evidence also needs to be obtained.

This process costs a considerable amount of money and can take anything between 12 weeks and 10 months (or longer during COVID-19), by which time your finances could be seriously damaged and your loved ones may not be able to access your money or assets for your and their benefit. Even worse, a Judge will make the final decision as to who is appointed as the Deputy and this may not be who you would have wished to manage your affairs.

The appointment by the Court of Protection does not even have to be a family member and could prefer to appoint a Panel Deputy; either retired Solicitors or Barristers who work for the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) or a Local Authority.

That is also not the end of the matter. As an appointed Deputy you have to pay annual supervision fees and report your actions and spending to the Courts.

While the Court of Protection is important to safeguard the interests of people who don’t have close friends or family, if you want your loved ones to be able to care for you and make decisions on your behalf, you should ensure that you make a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) while you are still able to do so.

Process to set up a Lasting Power of Attorney

To set up and register a Lasting Power of Attorney document you must send a correctly completed application form with the appropriate fee to The Office of the Public Guardian Office in Birmingham. It is important that the forms are completed correctly or you may have to pay the fees again.

Templar Estate Planning will, on having listened to your requirements and wishes, advise you on the appropriate Lasting Power of Attorney documents to set up and then draft and register the documents for you. This could be personal and/or business LPAs.

This can be carried out as part of your overall planning, for example alongside your Will, or as a standalone service if your current Will covers your needs. You will need to think about:

  • The person /people you want to make those decisions for you (your Attorneys)
  • The decisions you want to be made on your behalf. E.g., life sustaining treatments (or not).
  • How you want your Attorneys (if more than one) to make those decisions. E.g., jointly or individually

Once the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), your Attorneys are able to act on your behalf.

Contact us today, we are happy to discuss your needs in a no obligation call.

“Really happy to have chosen Templar for our long over due Will planning. David right from the start helped guide my wife and I through the various options clearly and concisely (and translating a lot of jargon that we had no clue about!) super happy with the service provided would highly recommend.”

Mr R – Reading

If you already have an LPA, you should be aware of how to make changes if you wish to, or even under certain circumstances have to make changes.  Find out more here

Our other services:

Will writing – don’t have, or not sure if your current Will will cover your needs? Have a look at our Will writing service here.

Trust establishment – Setting up a trust can further help protect your assets from threats. Have a look at our Trust service here.

Reason to have an LPA
not married
Will evaluation service

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