Lasting Powers of Attorney, or LPAs. You’ve decided to do them, so what do you need to do before you see us? Preparing for your LPA appointment isn’t something to worry about. Lots of clients ask us what they need to do or think about in advance. We send out a “What to Consider” pack about a week before we see you, so you have time to think about things. However, we never assume you will know all the answers on the day, so please don’t be concerned – we are here to make it easy!
Following on from her previous blog about preparing for your Will appointment, Jane explains a little more about preparing for your LPA appointment below:
The first things to do are:
- Give yourself a huge pat on the back for getting round to it.
- Grab yourself a brew
- Sit and read our “What to Consider” guide
- Get your ID ready for us as we always need to check this with you.
- Decide if you want to see us privately or with family members present.
- Tell your family members that you are going to be making a power of attorney and the reasons why.
When preparing for your LPA appointment, you may be thinking about why you need these important documents.
Things we are often asked:
Isn’t it the same as being the next of kin?
No !
A next of kin does not have an automatic right to deal with your finance or health and attorneys will override the wishes of a next of kin if they feel something is not in the best interests of them.
Financial institutions will not give your next of kin access to your accounts.
Health providers may wish to give you treatment that your next of kin know you would not have wanted. As next of kin their decisions may not be followed. As Attorneys they have to be.
I wrote a blog recently on this subject – you can read more here.
What is the difference between a Health LPA and a Finance LPA?
These are two distinct powers. Your health one covers giving your attorneys power to decide on issues about your day-to-day care but also around serious matters such as life sustaining treatment. It can only be used when you don’t have the capacity to make decisions for yourself.
Your finance one covers allowing your attorneys to deal with your day-to-day finances such as banking, insurance and bills, but also allows them to deal with any property issues on your behalf. If you have a business, It can also allow them to make business decisions if you are unable to.
Why are the documents 20 plus pages long?
These are serious legal rights that you are assigning to someone. The detail on the forms ensures that you cover all the issues that are likely to arise. You can make these documents online yourself, but there are a lot of scenarios you may not have thought of, and there is a lot of administration involved! Much easier to let us guide you and do all that paperwork for you!
How much do you charge?
- A single Power of Attorney is £300.
- To do both – one for finance and one for health – our fee is £450.
- For a couple doing both powers costs £750.
There are also registration fees payable of £82 per LPA, although if you are on a low income, or in receipt of means-tested benefits these can be discounted or even exempted.
Our fees include VAT, and lots of extras you won’t always get from others!
What is included in the price?
- seeing you in person* in our office or at home, to take your instructions and talking you through situations and requirements you may not have thought of. We also check your finances to see if you qualify for any discounts on the fees, and in some cases, if you are entitled to apply for additional benefits.
- drafting all the correct documents for you, including bespoke specific clauses that will ensure the documents can be correctly used when they are needed.
- acting as your “Certificate Provider” – the person who confirms you have the capacity to make these important documents.
- seeing you again to ensure that you understand these powers, and that you sign them correctly.
- ensuring all your attorneys sign correctly too – if they are local, we can see them in person. If they are further away, we can send them with full instructions so they are clear on what to do.
- collating all the documents together and submitting your LPAs for registration to the Office of the Public Guardian. We will deal with any queries that arise on your behalf.
- When your LPAs are registered, we send them to be safely stored (or to you to store at home), and provide you with copies to certify too!
*for those not so local, we can also provide a service via video appointment and post too
Why should I pay to have it done?
The forms are long and detailed, and it is easy to tick the wrong box/ fail to sign in the right place. If anything is wrong the application gets rejected and you have start again. The wait to register the documents is currently 15-20 weeks – but you can wait that long before discovering something is wrong with it!
By using our services we ensure there is a triple check on the documents before they go in. We also include extra terms in relation to ensuring your attorneys have no difficulties accessing any digital assets / accounts, or medical records. Our team also give you advice as to how to ensure your attorneys know what your wishes are and prepare those instructions for you for no additional cost. And we are there to give your attorneys some advice as to how and what they should do when the time comes for them to take on the responsibility.
Since 2018, 130,000 LPA’s have been rejected from being issued due to mistakes on them. By using our services, you reduce the risk substantially of being one of those statistics.
Surely I’m too young to worry about them?
No one is too young to do their LPAs. Accidents or illnesses can happen at any time. Once you lose capacity to provide your own instructions, your chance of influencing decisions on your own life in the future are gone. By taking steps now you are reducing the chances of being in that position.
Questions we ask that you probably haven’t considered!
When preparing for your LPA appointment, we send you some questions in advance. But on the day we will explain these, and more, so you have a full understanding of what is required. Here are some examples:
Who should I appoint?
It is essential that you only appoint people you know and trust well. They also need to be able to get along with each other and make decisions that each agree with. If you know your children still fight over everything then it is not wise to appoint them all jointly. If they can’t agree in the future, then they run the risk of a professional attorney having to be appointed via the Court of Protection. This is both expensive and takes time.
Do you want your attorneys to act jointly or give them the discretion to act separately as well.
This is really important for practical reasons. When you appoint attorneys to act jointly means they must sign all documents and be present for any decisions made. We can discuss with you what suits your circumstances and ensure that you give the right direction.
Specific for Property & Finance LPA:
- Would you like attorneys to be able to act straight away?
- Do you want them to carry on making any gifts /donations?
- Should your attorneys use a financial advisor?
- If you own a business what is to happen to it?
- Do you know the best way to appoint attorneys if you own your house jointly?
We can talk you through all these issues and explain why they may be relevant to you. We can then ensure you correctly select the right option for you.
Specific for Health & Welfare LPA:
- Do you want to give your attorneys the power to make decisions on life sustaining treatment for you? They can then decide if certain treatment should be continued or not. This is such an important area. Often people have strong views about when and how they want medical help in sustaining their life. We can help you write guidance to your attorneys so that your voice is still heard in the future.
- Do you want to give your Attorneys directions as to where you want to reside? Or any particular care needs or requests for how you live? For some people these issues are really important. You need to think about things such as where do you want to live? Do you want to continue to attend any particular religious institutions, do you want your attorneys to make sure you have certain regular health or welfare treatments. Would you like to be taken to your favourite pub or country spot for walking. We give you the opportunity to include some of these in your LPAs. Or we can help you provide written guidance to your Attorneys if you prefer. That option allows you to change this over time.
The kindest thing you can do
When preparing for your LPA appointment, remember that one of the kindest things you can do for your family is to have your powers in place. They then have the full legal status to speak and act on your behalf. Your Attorneys won’t face the situation where they can’t access money for you or are overruled by medical providers.
You can be even kinder to them by taking time to provide extra details as to how you want to be looked after. Or you can give them a record of all your important information and how to use it. We do all that for you. When you use our services, we can help you decide on all those things and record them in a straightforward and sensible way.
At MBW, we are proud to provide a service that is affordable and straightforward. We like nothing better than blasting some jargon away and making things easy to understand for our clients. We also don’t want finance to be a barrier for people so can offer payment over several months if you’d prefer.
Remember, we also donate 5% of all our invoices to CancerCare to help them continue the fantastic work they do.
IF you’d like ore information, call us on 01524 571032 or fill in our Information Request form on our website here.
We look forward to helping you get these most important of documents in place.