What would happen if you were mentally or physically unable to take care of yourself or your day to day affairs?
You could lose the ability to pay bills online or write cheques, make deposits or withdrawals, sell assets, move to a new house, invest or otherwise conduct your affairs. Unless you are prepared, incapacity could devastate your family, exhaust your savings and undermine your financial, tax and estate planning strategies. Planning ahead can ensure that your health-care wishes are carried out and that your finances will continue to be managed properly.
Incapacity can strike anyone at any time. Advancing age can bring confusion and forgetfulness, or even worse, dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. A severe illness or accident can occur without any warning, at any age. Even with today’s medical advances it is a real possibility that you or your spouse could find you are incapable of handling your own health, care and financial affairs.
Here are some reasons why you should plan ahead:
- To sell my house so I can move somewhere more suitable for my needs.
- To relieve my family from the worry of making difficult decisions about me.
- To ensure I’m pain free at all times.
- To ensure my tax returns are completed.
- To keep my business running smoothly.
- To avoid family disputes.
- To allow me to maintain my dignity.
- So my loved ones know my wishes.
- So my doctor knows my wishes.
- To see to it my bills are paid.
- To stop my life being prolonged when I have no quality of life.
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document you use to appoint trusted individuals to make decisions on your behalf after you lack the mental capacity to make decisions yourself. It cannot be used before it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.
The person chosen to make decisions on your behalf is your ‘attorney’ and the two types of LPAs are ‘Property and Financial Affairs’ and ‘Health and Welfare’.
We recommend you sign both versions as it is vital your finances and future welfare are covered to protect your best interests.
Worried about Financial Management
A registered Property and Financial Affairs LPA lets people you choose make decisions about:
- Buying, selling or renting property for you.
- Managing your investments to increase your income or selling investments as may be necessary.
- Operating your bank/building society accounts.
- Managing any ongoing contracts with utility providers, etc.
- Claiming, receiving and spending your pensions and benefits.
- Making sure you have all the resources available to meet your needs.
Worried about your Health, Medical and Care?
A registered Health and Welfare LPA lets the people you choose make decisions about:
- Giving or refusing consent to particular types of health care and medical treatment.
- Staying in your own home.
- Moving into retirement housing or choosing the right care home for you.
- Day to day issues like your diet, dress or daily routine and keeping family and friends in touch with you.
Having an LPA helps to put you in control of who will make decisions for you if one day they have to be made on your behalf.
Worried about your Health, Medical and Care?
An LPA allows you to plan:
- The decisions you want to be taken on your behalf in the future if/when you lose capacity regarding your finances and health.
- The people you want to make these decisions.
- How you want your attorneys to make these decisions.
Having an LPA is a safe way of maintaining control over decisions made for you because:
- It must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before it can be used.
- Someone must vouch that you understand the significance and purpose of it.
- From a legal perspective, your attorneys must follow the Code of Practice of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 – if they do not always act in your best interests the OPG can step in.
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