Despite the importance of having LPAs in place, it is still a widely overlooked aspect of prudent financial planning and I thought it useful to share some recent personal experiences.
Both my wife and I have parents with failing health, so we needed to get more involved with managing their financial and health affairs. We have now put LPAs in place for each of our parents, which allows us to make decisions on their behalf. For instance, I can now log into their bank accounts and manage any payments as well as keep an eye out for anything out of the ordinary. The Health & Welfare LPA allowed my sister to instruct the hospital to release Dad from the hospital after a short stay, something that would have been much harder without the LPA.
While you can engage the services of a solicitor to manage the LPA process, it is possible to do it all yourself. I should add, however, that if your family circumstances are particularly complicated or one of the ‘donors’ (the person the LPA is being set up for) wishes to stipulate the circumstances in which others can act, then seeking legal advice may be the best option. It costs £82 to register an LPA.
In my family’s case, Dad had been the one to take care of the finances but as he entered his 80s and his health took a downward turn, we could see bills were being left unpaid and he was no longer able to manage day-to-day finances. Dad agreed to an LPA and appointed Mum, myself, and my siblings as ‘attorneys.’ The HMRC LPA website is the place to start and you need to enter everyone’s details and pay the registration fee. Then you print off the application and get everyone to sign. The LPA needs to have a ‘certificate provider’, who is an impartial person who helps protect the donor’s interests by checking that the donor understands the LPA and is making it of their own free will. This person can be their GP or solicitor but doesn’t have to be - and we found it quite time-consuming liaising with the GP for signatures – so, if possible, you may find it preferable to use a closer contact to act in this regard. The donor, certificate provider, and attorneys all need to sign the respective sections and be witnessed. Please note that the application needs to be signed in order, so do pay attention to the instructions!
Once you have posted the completed application to the Office of the Public Guardian, it can take 20 weeks(!) before confirmation is sent out. Then there is a 6-week cooling off period. After this time, the LPA should be set up and the attorneys can start to share the LPA with banks and any other providers.
As well as appointing attorneys, the donor can appoint ‘replacement attorneys’ and the donor can give instructions to guide the way the attorneys make their decisions. Apparently, most donors do not add any specific instructions, but this is a personal choice. The following HMRC websites explain how LPAs work and how to begin the process:
From my perspective, having LPAs in place for my parents has been a real-time saver. Mum is delighted that someone else can take care of the family finances and it is one less thing for her to worry about. It does take time to get an LPA in place and it may be too late to apply if the donor is not deemed to have the mental capacity for the application.
Make a lasting power of attorney - GOV.UK
Make a lasting power of attorney