The Benefits Of A Lasting Power Of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document where you (the Donor) appoint somebody (an Attorney) to make decisions on your behalf about your property, money and/or health and welfare.  It can be used both when you have full mental capacity and you no longer wish to make decisions or if you no longer have the mental capacity to make such decisions.

There are many benefits of a Lasting Power of Attorney which we have set out below.

Struggling To Look After Your Affairs And/Or To Make Decisions

You may at some stage point in the future struggle to deal with and make decisions relating your financial affairs or your health and personal welfare matters either due to mental reasons or physical reasons.

Mental Incapacity

You might in the future start to be forgetful start to become a little mixed up and confused. You may even develop problems such as Alzheimer’s or some other mental condition and may possibly even lose your mental capacity.

Physical Incapacity

You might no longer be as active as you once were and in the future might find it difficult to carry out certain tasks because of physical reasons, maybe experience difficulties walking any distance, or become hard of hearing and struggle to talk over the phone or your eyesight might start to fail. You might even simply be out of the country on holiday for periods of time.

Protecting Your Assets

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney is a great way of protecting and making sure that your assets and yourself are properly looked after if you start to struggle or become unable to look after yourself and your finances.

Plan In Advance

You can plan and state in advance the decisions you want others to make on your behalf if you ever lose capacity to make them yourself.

Choose People You Can Trust

You can choose and appoint the people who you trust to make those decisions and how you want those people to make those decisions. Your Attorneys must always act in your best interests and follow the Code of Practice under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 (see later).

Making Sure The Right Decisions Are Made

Making a Lasting Power of Attorney is also a safe way of making sure the right decisions are made on your behalf because  the Lasting Power of Attorney has to be registered with the Office of The Public Guardian before it can be used.