Power of attorney with solicitor

FlorayG

I've thought for months on this and of all the relatives and friends I trust there are none I would saddle with the burden of this so I'm going to have to appoint my solicitor for financial attorney

Obviously I will only give consent for him to act if I lose mental capacity but who decides that? I know a few people with dementia who deny there is anything wrong with them.

If I decided to, for example, in my 95th year to sell my house, donate the money to a cat sanctuary and go and live in a yurt my friends would absolutely know if I was or was not doing that in my right mind but how would my solicitor know?

I have named a friend as my health attorney and yes, my will is up to date

elsien

My first suggestion would be to to reconsider having a solicitor only act when you lose capacity.
In my line of work, I sometimes deal with people in care homes/hospitals and due to physical ill health or disability they may struggle with the admin needed to maintain day to day banking when they can’t get to the bank, use a laptop or however they used to manage affairs before.

The solicitor can’t take over your finances if you have capacity but they could support with the things you simply can’t do or just don’t want to anymore.

I tend to find that at the point where people are losing capacity in various areas they may well come to the local authorities notice for various reasons - self-neglect, wandering, safeguarding concerns raised by others etc. and if the finances are a part of that then the social worker would complete a financial capacity assessment.

poseidon1

I think this subject was covered in some depth in your post last year.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6588025/question-about-lpa-with-a-solicitor

I believe at that point your primary concern was likely costs of a professional lawyer acting under an activated LPA in the event you do lose capacity. Not clear whether you felt the extent of your asset base and income could justify the likely high admin costs of a professional attorney.

In answer to your specific question you pose now, it would seem to me it would be incumbent on you to periodically touch base with your chosen attorney, to up date them on how you are faring and indicate any material changes in your financial circumstances since your last meeting.

However, you are correct, they do not know you personally and their ability to determine whether your competency or otherwise has taken a turn for the worse so as to justify their intervention, would be a difficult judgement call probably requiring medical assessments you may not be prepared to submit to.

I note @elsien's worse case scenario, where social services may be the 'first responders' in the case of serious deline. However I believe you have in mind a friend for your health LPA. Therefore it would seem more logical for a financial attorney to also have a professional relationship with the health attorney on your behalf so that between them , you do not lapse into mental infirmity unnoticed.

Beyond this, I doubt you will get any further insights from this forum ( beyond those in your previous post) which will assist your decision making process in looking to enlist a solicitor as a your financial LPA.

FlorayG

Thanks. Id forgotten that previous post, but now I've made the decision and just looking for further information. Yes I guess putting my health attorney and financial one in close contact makes sense.

I can't bear the thought of paying eye-watering solicitors fees when I know how much I am paying; at least if I'm ga ga I won't know 😆

Savvy_Sue

What elsien says: people are allowed to make unwise decisions, so your scenario of selling your house, giving the money to the cat sanctuary and going to live in a yurt might be out of character without necessarily indicating a lack of capacity. However your health attorney would be in a good place to express any concerns to your solicitor.

But remember that if you only appoint one attorney, and something happens to them, then the Power fails. If you're not, at that stage, capable of making a new one, then you no longer have an attorney. Is there any chance you can find two people to do this? Especially if your current plan is for someone about the same age to be your attorney (and apologies if you've covered this elsewhere).

Yorkie1

But remember that if you only appoint one attorney, and something happens to them, then the Power fails. If you're not, at that stage, capable of making a new one, then you no longer have an attorney.

This can also be the case if a single solicitor is named as an executor, trustee, attorney etc. If they retire or are struck off, then you're stuck. Appointing a solicitor's firm is more trustworthy, but again the wording would need to cover if the firm merged, was sold, or had an intervention into it.