Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) – Act Before it is Too Late

If a person fails to arrange Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) before they lose their mental capacity, they are then ensuring that a close family member, friend and/or business partner of theirs has no choice but to apply to a court for retrospective limited permission to make decisions upon their behalf. This is expensive and time-consuming for that family member, friend, or business partner.

Continuity

There are many aspects of our lives which can be affected negatively if there is nobody already officially authorised to make decisions upon our behalf if we suddenly (or otherwise) lose our mental capacity.  Housing, regular bills, utilities, business affairs, state benefits, types of health care, location of care, etc., would all be affected immediately and dramatically as a result.

If there is no Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) in place and someone loses their mental capacity to make their own decisions, nobody else can then immediately act legally in their place. 

However, if court registered LPA is already in place before a person loses their capacity to make their own decisions, their selected appointed attorneys (decision makers) may begin to act immediately and without further legal costs after mental capacity has been lost, thus maintaining continuity.  This is why LPA is sometimes unofficially also described as a “Living Will”.

LPA usually takes approximately 3 months to be registered after the appropriate documentation is submitted to the court for approval. 

Cost

If you currently maintain your mental capacity, the maximum cost to arrange court registered LPA through TRF Wills would be £294.00 (NO VAT). This would only be marginally greater if you wished DIFFERENT people to act for your personal affairs as opposed to your business affairs. There are NO further legal costs if you subsequently lose your mental capacity.

However, applying to a court AFTER someone has lost their mental capacity would cost initially between £371* and £1,236*, PLUS an additional security bond fee in relation to a patient’s finances, PLUS ongoing annual costs of between £35* and £420*.

*The variance between the above costs is due to the specific nature of each application, and these are all without guarantee of success.

Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) = Peace of Mind

Once LPA has been registered, there are no further concerns as to whether other people can act in someone’s best interests.  Whereas, relying upon a court process after our mental capacity has been lost is fraught with risk, delays, costs, and worry for someone other than us.

If attorneys are appointed in advance of any loss of mental capacity, then such attorneys have no power and cannot overrule our own decisions.  Their decision-making power only exists if we lose our mental capacity, or if we give such attorneys express permission to act on a situation-by-situation basis whilst we maintain our mental capacity.

Attorneys are legally obliged to act in our best interests under the terms of the Mental Capacity Act (MCA) 2005, so why take the risk of waiting until it is too late?

For further information, without the fear of consultation fees or obligation, then please visit TRFWills.co.uk/Power-of-Attorney.