I don’t often get the chance to sit down and watch much on the TV, but I recently delved head first into a couple of episodes of 24 hours in A&E. I realised 3 things… I’m not great with blood, secondly, our NHS staff do an incredible job under horrendously stressful situations and finally, none of us know what the future has in store for us.
Whether it‘s a freak accident or the slow decline in mental capacity, none of us really know what’s around the corner. We speak to people daily about the conditions of Lasting Powers of Attorney, and there’s a common theme that most people think you only need one when you get old. My few hours of binge-watching demonstrated that life is full of surprises and if we really want to make sure our best interests are future-proofed, it’s worth investigating the options before something happens.
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a way of giving someone you trust, the legal authority to make decisions on your behalf if you lose the mental capacity to do so in the future. There are 2 types of LPA, one is based on financial situations including the sale of property and money management the other is to do with the provision of health and care. They are not mutually exclusive and can be either planned together or written separately. It’s probably also worth pointing out that they are not linked to your Will and effectively the agreements die with you.
The benefits of having an LPA in place are that you get to choose who makes your decisions for you if for any reason you no longer can. For many, there is certainly some comfort in knowing that whatever awaits us, you have plans in place to make sure someone has your best interests at heart.
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