A Last­ing Pow­er of Attor­ney (LPA) is a legal doc­u­ment appoint­ed by a sin­gle per­son, known as the Donor, that grants one or more per­son the sta­tus of ​‘Attor­ney’, allow­ing them to make deci­sions on the Donor’s behalf. Depend­ing on the type of doc­u­ment the Donor has signed, the Attorney/​s will be legal­ly allowed to make deci­sions about the Donor’s health and wel­fare, and/​or prop­er­ties and finan­cial affairs. 

Why Give Some­one LPA?

Nobody likes to think about a future where they might not be able to make deci­sions for them­selves but, by giv­ing some­one they trust an LPA, a Donor can have much more say over what might hap­pen if they have an acci­dent or ill­ness that affects their men­tal capac­i­ty. Typ­i­cal­ly, a Donor grants an LPA to some­one they trust to make deci­sions on their behalf such as a fam­i­ly mem­ber or close friend. 

Types of LPAs 

As men­tioned pre­vi­ous­ly, there are two main types of LPA documents: 

• Health and Welfare

• Prop­er­ties and Finan­cial Affairs

Donors can choose to make one or both types of LPA depend­ing on their indi­vid­ual needs and they don’t have to assign the same Attor­ney to both documents. 

The per­son who has con­trol over a Donor’s health and wel­fare will be able to make deci­sions about med­ical care, life-sus­tain­ing treat­ment, day to day care and whether or not to move them into a care home. 

The per­son who has con­trol over a Donor’s finan­cial affairs will be able to make deci­sions about sell­ing a prop­er­ty, man­ag­ing bank and build­ing soci­ety accounts, pay­ing bills, and col­lect­ing ben­e­fits or from a pen­sion scheme. 

Legal Help

It is advis­able that you seek help and advice from a Solic­i­tor when draw­ing up Last­ing Pow­er of Attor­ney doc­u­ments. An LPA is a seri­ous affair and there are many things to con­sid­er out­side who you are going to choose to act as your Attorney. 

Donors must elect a Cer­tifi­cate Provider who can con­firm that they under­stand the con­se­quences of mak­ing an LPA and that nobody is forc­ing them to make it against their wish­es. In addi­tion, doc­u­ments must be drawn up and Court fees must be paid to reg­is­ter the LPAs documents. 

Jack­son Bar­rett & Gass’ in-house team spe­cialis­es in LPAs and mak­ing the process as sim­ple as pos­si­ble for clients. They will han­dle all the paper­work and pro­cess­ing, ensur­ing that both the Donor and the Attor­ney are ful­ly informed every step of the way. For help or advice with an LPA con­tact us on 01625 523988 or mail@​JBGass.​com.