Life can be unpredictable. While no one wants to think about losing their decision-making ability, taking proactive steps can ensure your loved ones are prepared. Mental health conditions are on the rise, so it’s wise to consider how a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) can benefit you and your family.
An LPA is a legal document that empowers you to appoint one or more trusted individuals (attorneys) to make decisions on your behalf if you’re unable to do so. In the UK, Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to choose attorneys for your health and welfare (health and welfare LPA) and property and finances (property and finance LPA).
Having an LPA in place provides peace of mind for both you and your loved ones. It removes uncertainty and empowers your attorneys to act in your best interests. In this guide, you’ll learn all about the preparations needed leading up to your applications for a Lasting Power of Attorney.
4 Steps Leading Up to Creating a Lasting Power of Attorney in the UK
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) forms in the UK are sent to the Office of the Public Guadian (OPG) for processing. Before registering an LPA application, you’ll need to capture the donor’s letter of wishes, appoint attorneys in the online power of attorney form and obtain certification from the certificate provider and the attorney’s acceptance.
1. Drafting a Letter of Wishes
Although the LPA covers basic information, it won’t include detailed directions for your attorneys on how exactly they need to carry out their duties. Though not a legal mandate, the letter of wishes is a useful medium for communicating the preferences that you would have chosen yourself. These preferences and decisions cover finances, health, gifts and donations, food preferences, and end-of-life care.
In the letter of wishes, you can include how you want your finances to be managed, from the terms of investments to your preferred financial instruments. For example, you may prefer safer investment options like premium bonds over investing in property. If you’ve been regular at giving gifts and donations to charities or people, you can ask your attorneys to continue by mentioning their details in this letter.
An important point to mention in the letter of wishes is deciding whether or not you want your life to be prolonged in case you are incapacitated. Specifying your decision to your attorneys in this letter can guide them to make the right choice.
2. Appointing Attorneys
In the online power of attorney form, you need to provide details of the attorneys you wish to appoint while mentioning the capacity in which you want them to act. This can be either jointly or jointly and severally.
Before you arrive at a decision, it is better to understand what these terms mean. Acting in the capacity of ‘jointly and severally’ means that each of your attorneys can act independently of the other, which is a good option if your attorneys live far away from each other.
Unless they can act severally, banks and building blocks generally ask for one of the joint attorneys to identify themselves as the ‘lead’. A word of caution – avoid appointing one attorney who also owns a property with you, as it can lead to further complications in times of stress.
3. Get Signatures from Certificate Providers
Before registering your POA, you must submit LP1F and LP1H forms to the OPG. LP1F is for registering an LPA for financial decisions, whereas LP1H is for registration of health and care decisions.
More importantly, these forms must be duly signed by a ‘certificate provider’, who certifies you, the donor, and attests that you fully understand what the LPA is and are not under any pressure to sign it.
Bear in mind, that you cannot appoint your partner or any family members as a certificate provider. This individual has to be someone you have known for at least 2 years or a professional like a solicitor, doctor or social worker. The attorneys and the witnesses you choose need to sign these forms in a specified order before submission.
4. Use LP3 Forms to Notify ‘People to Be Told’
A section in the POA forms asks you to identify the ‘people who need to be told’, which means all the people who need to be notified that you’re planning to register a POA.
Using LP3, a notification form, you can send a notification to whom you’ve identified in your POA form. In turn, they have a time limit of three weeks to raise any concerns with the OPG. As it is not a compulsory requirement to name anyone, you can also choose not to.
In Conclusion
In many ways, setting up a Power of Attorney is perhaps more important than setting up any other legal document in your estate plan. Without a doubt, an LPA acts as a safety net for you and your assets. Don’t wait, record your wishes in an LPA today.
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