Lasting Power of Attorney
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Services Experts
What is Lasting Power of Attorney?
A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that grants authority to a person(s) of your choosing (known as the ‘attorney’) to make decisions on your behalf should you become unable to do so in the future. Anyone over the age of 18 who is of sound mind can create an LPA.
Types of LPA
There are two types of LPA that you can create:
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Health & Welfare: This type grants the attorney authority to make decisions about your day-to-day health and welfare, including decisions about where you live, medical treatment, and your daily care, including diet and clothing.
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Property & Financial Affairs: This type grants the attorney authority to make decisions about your finances and property. If you are unable to manage your own finances, your attorney can handle tasks such as paying bills, collecting owed income, and managing property sales.
Who can be an Attorney?
You can choose anyone over the age of 18 as an attorney, but in the case of a 'property and financial affairs' attorney, they cannot be bankrupt. You can appoint more than one attorney if you wish, and you can select different individuals for the roles of health & welfare attorney and property & financial affairs attorney.
Choosing an attorney is an important decision, and you should consider someone you trust, who is reliable and competent enough to fulfil the role. While many people choose a relative or close friend, you can also seek assistance from a professional such as a solicitor.
How does it work?
Once you have completed all the necessary paperwork for an LPA, it must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before it can be used.
If you become unable to make decisions, your attorney will then assume responsibility for you based on the instructions in your LPA. If you have appointed more than one attorney, you can specify how they make decisions. For example, you could require unanimous agreement for significant decisions like property sales or medical treatment, while allowing independent action for day-to-day decisions like diet or clothing.
Regardless of who you choose as your attorney, they must follow the Mental Capacity Act when making decisions. This means they must act in your best interests, consider your wishes, avoid personal gain at your expense, and keep your finances separate from their own.
We can assist you in completing and registering both types of LPA correctly, as well as providing more detailed information and advice on the process.
Our Fees
We charge a fixed rate fee of £350 plus VAT (£420 in total) for the preparation of each LPA.
If you choose to instruct us to prepare both a Property & Financial Affairs LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA then this would be at a discounted rate of £550 plus VAT (£660 in total) for the two.
If you and your partner both opt to make LPAs with us we provide a further discounted rate of £995 plus VAT (£1,194) for the four LPAs giving you a total saving of £486!
What's included?
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An initial appointment to discuss your matter and take instructions from you
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Specialist advice on the process and use of a Lasting Power of Attorney
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Completion of the necessary paperwork for the Office of the Public Guardian including confirmation from us that you have the legal capacity to make this decision
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Checking that all forms are correctly signed, witnessed and compliant before forwarding to the Office of the Public Guardian for registration
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All work and correspondence involved in registering your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian
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Sending confirmation to you of successful registration
What's not included?
The registration fee for each LPA - currently £82 per LPA.
How long will the process take?
The preparation of the necessary paperwork and application forms can take up to around 4 weeks. Registration with the Office of the Public Guardian can take up to a further 10 weeks depending on how busy they are when your LPA is received.
Get In Touch
To book an appointment or ask questions, you can contact us at your convenience using the online enquiry form below. We will get back to you as soon as possible to see how we can assist you.