Lasting Power of Attorney – It’s for the living!
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Many people confuse having a Will with having arranged LPA’s...

… however, the two things are entirely separate. In simple terms you need a Will for when you die and an LPA for when you’re alive. One in four of us is going to lose capacity at some point during our lives and whilst we know these statistics, what we don’t know is which of us are going to be the unlucky ones.

There are two main types of Lasting power of Attorney, Health and Welfare and Property and Finance.  You do not have to have both kinds however if you are taking the time to do one you may find it efficient to get both done at the same time.

When it comes to appointing attorneys the most popular scenario is for people to use their spouse as their first choice with their children or a family member as their replacement attorneys so should their spouse predecease them or be unable to act they have a safety net in place.

I consider Lasting Power of Attorneys to be a bit like an insurance policy, you hope you never need to use it but if things go wrong you’re pleased that you have it. You don’t want to be one of the people whose loved ones are frantically phoning round companies hoping that someone can sort of LPA’s for their parent as they’ve lost capacity only to find out its too late. It’s like not having holiday insurance because ‘it won’t happen to me’ and falling ill abroad and being stuck expecting your family to have a whip round to fund your extortionate medical bills and get you home. Don’t be that person when you don’t need to be.

You can put restrictions and guidelines in place for your attorneys such as certain amounts of money needing to be agreed by at least two of your attorneys before being spent or in the case of Health and Welfare Attorneys all must be in agreement to end life sustaining treatment.

If you haven’t arranged Lasting Power of Attorney documents or would like more information on this or making your Will please don’t hesitate to contact me for more information or to make an appointment via email emma.wells@nsure.co.uk or on 01903 821010.