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Right of Way
From my experience in practice, I have found it so important that clients instruct us to prepare Lasting Powers of Attorney as there are considerable advantages in having a properly executed Lasting power of attorney.Lasting Powers of Attorney cover both areas of your property and finance and your health and welfare.
Lasting Powers of Attorney for Financial Affairs will allow your appointed Attorney to deal with your bank accounts, bank statements, pay important bills and ensure that your finances are in order, even though you have lost mental capacity.
Get the paperwork in order in good time
Lasting Powers of Attorney for health and welfare enable your appointed Attorney to make decisions about your continued health and welfare and care in the future, together with discussing important medical decisions and life-sustaining treatment with your medical practitioners.
In the absence of such documents, banks may not carry out any financial transactions on the Donors behalf. This could mean that in a situation of a husband and wife having separate accounts, your spouse will not be able to pay bills on your behalf, which can create severe debt situations.
So, in a situation where you run a separate business from your spouse important business decisions will not be able to be implemented without a properly executed Lasting Power of Attorney.
Furthermore, in the absence of a Lasting Powers of Attorney for your health and welfare, medical professions are not obliged to follow your family’s wishes in relation to your future treatment, but would have done so had an Attorney been appointed.
In the absence of a valid Lasting Power of Attorney, an application will need to be made to the Court of Protection for the appointment of a Deputy. These applications can take more than six months, during which time your financial situation is in limbo and issues in relation to your health and welfare are delayed.
Lasting Powers of Attorney can be completed relatively quickly. In some cases, certification as to capacity is needed, but in other cases, the Lasting Powers of Attorney can be signed by an appointed relative certifying capacity.
Struggling to find the right attorney?
Additionally, if you struggle to find attorneys, a professional attorney such as a Solicitor can be appointed and in the preparation of the power you could insert certain powers that you would like your attorneys to action. A specific power of attorney can also be created for a business.
At the time of preparation of the Lasting Powers of Attorney, the Donor must have mental capacity.
Once the Lasting Powers of Attorney are prepared an application is made to the Court of Protection to register the Powers and the Powers will only come into effect once the Donor has lost mental capacity.
There are built-in provisions in the application to prevent financial abuse and ensure that Donors wishes are carried out properly.
For example, the Court of Protection retains powers to restrict attorneys who may abuse their powers and a number of cases have come before the Court of Protection where it is been held that the attorney has not acted in a Donors best interest by investing in dubious funds.
In cases of a challenge to the Power, we can act in those situations.
