This legal document is used to appoint an Attorney or group of Attorneys, who will act in your best interests at all times and be in a position to assist you with financial decisions. These may involve running your bank and savings accounts, making or selling investments, paying your bills, buying or selling your home on your behalf if you lack capacity to act on your own. This could include physical capacity such as mobility issues which may prevent you from being able to leave the house and carry out day-to-day personal errands for yourself.
You can choose to either allow your attorneys to make decisions as soon as the LPA has been registered by the Office of the Public Guardian or only when you don’t have mental capacity. While you have mental capacity you will be in control of all decisions affecting you. If you choose to give the power as soon as they are registered, your attorneys can only make decisions on your behalf if you allow them to. They are responsible to you for any decision you let them make. Your Attorneys cannot use your LPA to change your Will even if you lose mental capacity.
KOR LAW will discuss all of the options with you as part of the consultation process, to ensure that you understand the implications and practicalities for each decision to be made when completing the forms. We can guide you through alternative scenarios to demonstrate the different choices available and explain how these would affect both the Donor and Attorneys in practice.
This legal document is used to appoint an Attorney or group of Attorneys, who will act in your best interests at all times and be in a position to assist you with health and care decisions. These may involve the type of health care and medical treatment you receive, including life-sustaining treatment, where you live (if you need to move into a permanent residential care home etc), as well as day-to day matters such as your diet and daily routine.
Life-sustaining treatment means care, surgery, medicine or other help from doctors that’s needed to keep you alive such as a serious operation, cancer treatment or artificial nutrition or hydration. Decisions about life-sustaining treatment can be needed in unexpected circumstances, such as a routine operation that didn’t go as planned. Without a Lasting Power of Attorney, you have no legal right to access a loved one’s medical notes, owing to data protection.
KOR LAW will also help you decide how your Attorneys should make decisions, whether that be as a single Attorney with replacements, jointly and severally, jointly or jointly for some decisions, jointly and severally for other decisions. It can be a bit of a minefield, so it is important to be aware of the consequences when choosing the correct option for your needs.
A Lasting Power of Attorney should not be considered the same or just as good as having a Will. Both legal documents serve completely different purposes but are equally vital. The Lasting Power of Attorney will protect you whilst you are alive, and your Will takes effect to protect your loved ones after you have died. When you pass away, the Lasting Power of Attorney automatically expires and cannot be used thereafter.