Lasting Power of Attorney Advice

TerryP

My partner & I have just had lengthy discussions with a pension expert. We have finalized plans for our pension planning. However our adviser recommended we should have Lasting Power of Attorney plans in place for each other. It appears this is something we maybe able to set up ourselves, we can download the appropriate forms online. Has anyone on the forum had experience of this DIY route. How many attorneys should we appoint etc ?, or would using each other as attorneys suffice ?. Any help would be appreciated.

TerryP

Keep_pedalling

It is not too difficult to DIY LPAs, but you need more then each other as attorneys. If your only attorney dies or become incapacitated then it is useless.

We have made each other attorneys along with our two children. You either need to allow all attorneys to act jointly and severally, or appoint a main attorney with at least one back up.

Brynsam

If your affairs are straightforward, the DIY approach is fine. You need two POA each - one for Heath and Welfare, the other for Property and Financial Affairs.

Just appointing each other as your attorney isn't a good idea - what happens if you are both incapacitated in the same car crash.... Useful info if you've not yet read it: https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/choose

System

You also need them to be a lot younger than you.

badmemory

Easy to do & the online forms let you know if you have omitted something that needs answering. Initial attorneys each other with a child as back up.

Shedman

Keep_pedalling wrote: »

It is not too difficult to DIY LPAs, but you need more then each other as attorneys. If your only attorney dies or become incapacitated then it is useless.

We have made each other attorneys along with our two children. You either need to allow all attorneys to act jointly and severally, or appoint a main attorney with at least one back up.

Having just completed ours, one thing that is important to note that if you appoint 2 or more people as Joint Attorneys you should preferably make them !!!8220;joint and several!!!8221; otherwise:

1) they have to agree and often need to jointly sign all documents that need actioning when they are acting,which can significantly restrict or delay matters,especially if they live in different places (or countries)

2) if one of them dies then the other can!!!8217;t just step in and so there is no longer anyone who can act as Attorney (unless you have also appointed replacement attorneys)

That!!!8217;s why its often suggested to appoint, say, spouse as main attorney and then 2 or more of the children (over 18 at time of submitting application I believe) or other relations or trusted friends as replacement attorneys on a joint and several basis. If you want to restrict certain decisions to a truly joint decision you can nominate these on the forms.

It!!!8217;s a pretty straightforward process but some other tips:

1) be really sure you know who you want as main and replacement attorneys at the outset and if possible don!!!8217;t change your mind and edit the form to change them at a later date but before submitting form. It can screw things up between the pages of the forms (well it did in our case as we started about 12 months ago and then changed our views last month when finally got round to completing them)

2) Make sure you preview and check before choosing the Pay and submit option. It!!!8217;s not that clear but if you look in the Help section there are some instructions. As a man of course I didn!!!8217;t look at the Help section :sad: so missed this and when the forms printed I found the errors discussed in 1) above. No way of going back and editing so it was a bit of hassle getting it sorted

3) Be very careful with the order of dating the various pages. There!!!8217;s a check page to help with this.

4) Related to 2) above. Once submitted if you ever want to change to attorneys etc you can!!!8217;t without getting the LPA cancelled and having to pay again to do a replacement. So definitely worth thinking it through clearly before putting pen to paper or rather finger to keypad (I think you can download a PDF pack to look through first to see the questions, options etc but it!!!8217;s better to then complete final version online in my view)

Never too soon get both LPAs in place. (Although on the upside of our prevarication is that prices came down 25% so we saved around £100 on our 4 LPAs :T)

Shedman

Now what was the answer to this aprostraphe problem posting using iPads........

BobQ

It is very straightforward, download the forms and you will find they have acomprehensive guidance notes that will answer most of your questions.

You need to appreciate that you are donating to your Attorney a lot of authority so you need to be sure of whoever you are trusting to do this. The financial PoA will cover all your assets (unless you say otherwise) and the health PoA allows the Attorney to make any decision on your behalf (unless you say otherwise). Once you have completed the two sets of forms they are only activated when they are registered.

The only point I would add is that forms are easy to DIY if your wishes are straightforward. If there are things you want to have in a PoA that are more complicated you may need professional advice. For example, if you want to allow your Attorney authority to tell doctors not to resuscitate you, that is simple, but if you want the decision made by two people you need to explain what happens if they disagree. But if you keep it simple DIY is fairly easy to do.

Keep_pedalling

Shedman wrote: »

Now what was the answer to this aprostraphe problem posting using iPads........

The problem is not restricted to Ipads, and is a problem with the forum itself, although no one from MSE seems to want to admit this.

TerryP

Just to say thank you to all for your help. I think we will download the forms and cautiously start the process. WE were just wondering the saving doing LPOA for both of us, against using a solicitor to do the job,

TerryP

LHW99

Now what was the answer to this aprostraphe problem posting using iPads........

Forget about grammar and stop using them?