Lasting Power of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you to appoint a person to handle your affairs when you are unavailable or unable to do so. It can be used at any time when or if you are not able to make your own decisions, or if you would prefer someone else to look after your affairs for you.

What kind of Lasting Powers of Attorney are there?

There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney

1. Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney

A health and welfare Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to choose one or more people to make decisions for things such as medical treatment and can only be used if you lack the ability to make decisions for yourself.

2. Property and Financial Affairs Lasting Power of Attorney

You can give someone power of attorney to deal with all your property and financial affairs or only certain things like:

buying or selling property
bank, building society and other financial accounts
welfare benefits or tax credits
tax affairs
debts
legal proceedings

See our Question & Answer section below for more information.

Free Consultation

We offer a free, no obligation video consultation to discuss making a will for you, managing your estate, or any of our other services. Just enter your details and choose a time that suits.

BOOK A CHAT NOW

Your Questions Answered:

Who can make a Lasting Power of Attorney?

Anyone aged 18 or over with the mental capacity can make a Lasting Power of Attorney appointing one or more attorneys to make decisions on their behalf.

When is an appropriate time to set this up?

In our experience usually we say the best time to make a Lasting Power of Attorney is when you are still working and are young enough to benefit from the security it can offer your family and friends.

However, there are many other circumstances when we have found having a LPA in your younger years is advisable in additional to your Will:

if you have a history of mental or physical illness in your family
when your day to day job means you encounter stress or dangerous hazards, i.e. builder, fireman, etc.
if you own a business with family, friends or as a partnership and you need to appoint trustworthy attorneys
or you have a wife, husband or partner and you want the peace of mind of knowing their finances and health and welfare will be looked after by a person you trust.

Wills

Clear statement of your wishes

Wills

Your Will is a clear statement of your wishes, and we can help draw up all the necessary documents for you.

Trusts

Your assets looked after with care

Trusts

A trust is a legal arrangement that allows assets such as property or money to be looked after for the benefit of the beneficiaries named in a Will.

Tax Planning

Assess your liability

Tax Planning

For each client that we work with, we complete a fact-finding exercise which shows us whether you can expect to have an Inheritance Tax liability.