Making a Lasting Power of Attorney

jim8888

My wife and I would like to put an LPOA in place for one another. We're both 58, have made a will and are in good health. We were advised by the solicitor who drew up our wills that we should put an LPOA in place, but we haven't done anything about it yet.
It seems that this is something that you can do yourself or get a professional to do - a quick search showed my local solicitor offers the service for around £800. Naturally I thought I'd check this out on the MSE forums - should we do it ourselves (is the process relatively simple?) or is it worth having a solicitor involved?

Pennylane

I recommend the Gov.uk site. It is really straightforward to do online and costs £82 for each of the 2 parts.  So £164 for both.  You can just do one if you prefer, but I did both for my late Mum and found it invaluable. I did both Finance and Property as well as Health and Welfare.  

https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/register

It is well explained all the way through.   I was quoted £1200 by a solicitor to do the same job which seems very hefty to me as you supply them with all the info anyway so you may as well do it yourself.

kipsterno1

We did our own online and found it very straight forward with clear guidance. The main thing is to get the right people to sign in the right place in the right order but again there is clear guidance on this. 

jim8888

Thanks. In terms of a "Certificate Provider" did you just get a "friend or neighbour" to provide this part?

Keep_pedalling

Certainly not difficult to DIY these. Do you have children you can appoint as attorneys?

kipsterno1

jim8888 said:

Thanks. In terms of a "Certificate Provider" did you just get a "friend or neighbour" to provide this part?

For ours we used close friends of over 20 years. When we did my dad's we used a neighbour of over 10 years.

relishy57

Second the diy route. I used a neighbour to certify. It’s clearly explained with useful checks throughout. I’ve just received mine, it took a few months to process. 

meishka

We also did this online for my in laws a few years ago. Sadly she passed away last year, I was going through her paperwork and was going to throw the POA's out (they are not valid on the death of the donar) but then found out that you have to send them back to the Office of the Public Guardian along with a copy of the death certificate so they can update their records. I dont think many people know this

jim8888

Keep_pedalling said:

Certainly not difficult to DIY these. Do you have children you can appoint as attorneys?

Hi, yes I do have a 27 year old son so I assume he could be one?

Ms_Chocaholic

Hi

Yes it's very simple to do online, if you register on the Gov website you can start a LPA as a trial run almost and then delete it and start again, just have a go and then you will know what other research etc you need to do.  There's no harm in doing a trial LPA, nothing will happen with it and you can delete it and start again.

Keep_pedalling

jim8888 said:

Keep_pedalling said:

Certainly not difficult to DIY these. Do you have children you can appoint as attorneys?

Hi, yes I do have a 27 year old son so I assume he could be one?

It is always preferable to have at least one attorney of a younger generation. So in your case each of you should make your spouse and sone attorneys. You should make sure you choose to allow them to act severally and separately.