There are four main deci­sions that need to be made when prepar­ing a Last­ing Pow­er of Attor­ney (LPA);

1) Attorneys
Who do you want to act for you when you are unable to make deci­sions for your­self? Any­body over the age of 18 can be appoint­ed but this should be a per­son you trust.

2) Replace­ment Attorneys
This a per­son that steps in as a sub­sti­tute in the event the per­son you chose as Attor­ney can no longer act for you, for exam­ple if your Attor­ney dies before you.

3) Cer­tifi­cate Provider
A Cer­tifi­cate Provider signs your LPA to con­firm that you under­stand the impli­ca­tions of mak­ing a LPA and that no-one has forced you to make a LPA against your will. A Cer­tifi­cate Provider must be some­body that has known you for two years or longer. How­ev­er, a per­son with rel­e­vant pro­fes­sion­al skills such as a Solic­i­tor or doc­tor can also act as a Cer­tifi­cate Provider.

4) Peo­ple to Notify
You need to let some­body know that you are reg­is­ter­ing a Last­ing Pow­er of Attor­ney. This can be any­body over the age of 18 but can­not be some­body already named in the LPA.

Appoint­ment or LPA Questionnaire

The next stage is to com­plete a ques­tion­naire or meet your Solic­i­tor to dis­cuss your LPA. Meet­ing your Solic­i­tor is usu­al­ly the best course of action as it allows you to dis­cuss the fin­er details such as the dif­fer­ences between appoint­ing your Attor­neys ​‘joint­ly’ or ​‘joint­ly and severally’.

LPA Preparation

Once you have giv­en your instruc­tions to your Solic­i­tor, your LPA will be pre­pared. This can take up to 7 work­ing days to be completed.

Sign­ing of LPA forms

The LPA forms must be signed in a spe­cif­ic order oth­er­wise they are invalid and can­not be used. You (the Donor) will sign the LPA first, fol­lowed by your Cer­tifi­cate Provider. The Attor­neys and Replace­ment Attor­neys then sign to say they agree to act as your Attor­neys. The Attor­neys and Replace­ment Attor­neys can sign on dif­fer­ent days and do not need to be present at the same time.

Registration

Once the LPA has been signed, it will need to be sub­mit­ted to the Office of the Pub­lic Guardian for reg­is­tra­tion. It can­not be used until it has been registered.

The per­son you choose to be noti­fied will be con­tact­ed and giv­en four weeks to object to the reg­is­tra­tion. If they do not object, the LPA will be reg­is­tered and returned to your Solic­i­tor. The reg­is­tra­tion process time varies but usu­al­ly takes around 8 to 9 weeks for the Office of the Pub­lic Guardian to com­plete the process.

Final matters

Fol­low­ing reg­is­tra­tion, your Solic­i­tor will ask if you would like cer­ti­fied copies of your LPA. A cer­ti­fied copy is a pho­to­copy that has been signed on every page by a Solic­i­tor to con­firm that it is a gen­uine copy.

You only need cer­ti­fied copies if your attor­neys want to use the LPA and wish to reg­is­ter it with organ­i­sa­tions such as your bank. If you do not require any cer­ti­fied copies, your solic­i­tor will store your LPA until such time that it needs to be used.

To arrange a dis­cus­sion about Last­ing Pow­ers of Attor­ney, please get in touch with Paul Clark on 01625 523988 or mail@​JBGass.​com