Last­ing Power Of At­tor­ney Guide

The future can be un­pre­dict­able. One day you could be fine, and the next, you can’t make your own de­cisions due to ill­ness, injury or old age. In these times es­pe­cially, it’s im­port­ant to have someone you trust who is ready to manage things for you. This is where the Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) comes into play.

In this guide to Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney , LPA’s we’ll cover everything you need to know about them, from their defin­i­tion and im­port­ance to set­ting one up. We’ll give you advice that’s much sim­pler than a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney guide gov­ern­ment ser­vices offer.

We’ll also tell you about a di­git­al ser­vice that can help you nav­ig­ate through every aspect of an LPA, making sure that your future is pro­tec­ted.

Guide for Un­der­stand­ing What Is an LPA

An LPA is a legal doc­u­ment that allows someone (known as the donor) to ap­point one or more people (known as at­tor­neys) to make de­cisions on their behalf if they can’t do so them­selves. It gives you peace of mind know­ing that your in­terests will be looked after even in an emer­gency.

There are two types of LPAs – a Health and Wel­fare LPA and a Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA. You can choose to set up both types of LPAs or just one.

With that in mind, let's take a closer look at these two types of LPAs with our brief last­ing power of at­tor­ney health and wel­fare guide and prop­erty and fin­an­cial af­fairs guide.

Health and Wel­fare LPA

A Health and Wel­fare LPA gives your chosen at­tor­ney(s) the au­thor­ity to make de­cisions about your:

• Med­ic­al Treat­ment – What kind of med­ic­al treat­ment you should re­ceive
• Care Ar­range­ments – De­cid­ing where you will live
• Other Per­son­al Wel­fare Mat­ters – Whom you want to have access to your per­son­al in­form­a­tion

Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA

A Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA gives your chosen at­tor­ney(s) the power to manage your:

• Fin­ances – Paying bills and man­aging bank ac­counts
• Prop­erty – Selling or buying prop­erty on your behalf
• Other Fin­an­cial Mat­ters

Read more: How to Use a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney?

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Why Is An LPA Im­port­ant?

As men­tioned earli­er, an LPA provides peace of mind know­ing that your wishes will be fol­lowed even if you can’t make de­cisions for your­self. It also allows you to choose someone you trust to handle your af­fairs. Oth­er­wise, those de­cisions would be in the hands of a court-ap­poin­ted deputy.

Set­ting up an LPA can also help avoid po­ten­tial con­flicts or dis­putes among family mem­bers. This doc­u­ment en­sures clar­ity and trans­par­ency in de­cision-making. It helps pre­vent any mis­un­der­stand­ing about who should make de­cisions on your behalf and what you would like done.

Guide for Dif­fer­ent Scen­ari­os with and without an LPA

Here's a table ex­plain­ing what hap­pens in dif­fer­ent scen­ari­os re­gard­ing Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) in the UK:

Read more about the role of LPA at­tor­ney.

LPA and De­men­tia

If a person is dia­gnosed with de­men­tia, it may already be too late to set up a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA). This is be­cause cre­at­ing an LPA re­quires the person to have the mental ca­pa­city to un­der­stand the im­plic­a­tions of the doc­u­ment they are sign­ing.

Once de­men­tia pro­gresses to a point where this un­der­stand­ing is im­paired, the in­di­vidu­al may no longer be eli­gible to make an LPA. This un­der­scores the im­port­ance of ar­ran­ging an LPA well in ad­vance, en­sur­ing that your wishes re­gard­ing your prop­erty, fin­ances, health, and wel­fare can be re­spec­ted and acted upon by someone you trust, even if you become unable to make these de­cisions your­self in the future.

⚠️ Make sure that you write your LPA sooner than later. If you don't have an LPA, then you will be ap­poin­ted a deputy.

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Guid­ance on Set­ting Up

Set­ting up an LPA in­volves a few steps that you must follow care­fully to avoid legal trouble.

Here’s a Break­down of the Pro­cess:

1. Choose Your At­tor­ney(s) – This should be someone you trust to make de­cisions on your behalf. It can be a family member, a friend, or a pro­fes­sion­al like a so­li­cit­or.
2. Fill Out The Forms – You can obtain the ne­ces­sary forms from the Office of Public Guard­i­an (OPG). Or you can seek as­sist­ance from a so­li­cit­or or spe­cial­ist ser­vice pro­vider.
3. Notify The People In­volved
   • Once you have com­pleted and signed the forms, you must notify anyone who needs to know about your LPA. You should talk to close family mem­bers and those named in the LPA.
4. Re­gister Your LPA – You can’t use your LPA until it’s of­fi­cial. To make it legal, you’ll need to re­gister your LPA with the OPG. Be pre­pared: the re­gis­tra­tion fee for each LPA is £82, or £164 for both. Some people are eli­gible for free or re­duced re­gis­tra­tion.
5. Start Using Your LPA

As you can see in the steps above, you have to provide a lot of pa­per­work and in­form­a­tion to make a legal LPA.

💡 To make sure everything is in order, we re­com­mend you seek pro­fes­sion­al advice to help you in this pro­cess. A trus­ted di­git­al ser­vice like Aatos can also be useful in keep­ing you on track.

Read more about Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney forms

Sim­pli­fy Your Legal Life With Aatos

Set­ting up an LPA helps pro­tect your future and gives you peace of mind in an un­cer­tain world. In an emer­gency, you know that someone you trust will take care of your af­fairs. We hope this Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney guide pdf helped you learn the basics of this doc­u­ment.

We know that it can be over­whelm­ing to even think about set­ting up an LPA. But it could be much easier with sup­port. That’s where Aatos comes in.

Aatos is an online ser­vice de­veloped by law­yers. We com­bine the latest tech­no­logy with people-first ser­vices. We're help­ing you create last­ing power of at­tor­ney online and other legal meas­ures with tech­no­logy that’s there to guide you every step of the way. We also cus­tom­ise our ser­vice to meet your needs. We're trying to make the world of law more ac­cess­ible for you.

Don't wait until you need legal ser­vices - take action now to pro­tect your future with an LPA. And make this pro­cess un­be­liev­ably easy with your friends Aatos!