Lasting power of attorney

Primrose · 11 April 2018 at 11:15AM

Firstly you want these LPAs to be in place for a long time and not to have the hassle and expense of continually updating them, so think for the long term.

Include a contingency for all children, just in case you have more than one.

To cater for the possibility of older parents being infirm or unable to act, you could appoint some replacement attorneys but my own preference would be against that route because once original attorneys become unable to act, even temporarily, the replacement attorneys have to take over and original attorneys are effectively replaced and then unable to act . An older parent who has a temporary illness or incapacity to act for a few months could be permanently prevented from operating by going this route.

In my view it's much better to have more "prime" attorneys, all capable of acting jointly and severally. This allows any of them to act at any time, and effectively a couple of people who you view as "backups" still have the authority to act in a temporary emergency, without impacting on the authority of the people you regard as your prime attorneys.

On the question of cost, I know it seems an expensive operation setting these up, but ask yourself "what price permanent peace of mind?" for the future. One hears of any number of people for whom sudden serious incapacity or illness has hit, thinking "it will never happen to me", and the lives of whole families have become a nightmare trying to then set up Office of Public Guardian arrangements which are more restrictive than Powers of Attorney, and take ages to set up. Take the financial hit, give every attorney a copy to keep safely in their files and hope they will never be needed. If something does subsequently unfortunately go wrong with your lives, it will be one of the best investments you could have made. It's very hard for relatives to deal with any institution these days on behalf of somebody else without being able to produce a registered Power of Attorney!

AnotherJoe · 11 April 2018 at 12:08PM

88engine wrote: »

Hi. I too am thinking of setting up a lasting power of attorney (LPA).

I am signing up to a will-writing service through my work benefits and want to tag on the LPA as well.

First thing I want to check regarding an LPA is the level of detail that can be included. Is that entirely up to me, or are you restricted at all?

You can add pages of excruciating detail if you want.

Essentially we have a 1 year old and property etc. We would like to give our parents LPA of both our child and finances in the event that both my wife and I were no longer mentally capable following an accident or anything. However, because they are parents, if we do not have an accident then they are likely to reach the point where THEY do not have mental capacity before us and therefore we would like the LPA to automatically change to our friends. Is this even possible to be written in?

Yes you can list substitute attorneys.

This might also be the case if we had an accident tomorrow and they took control of our child and finances, but then in 10 years time become incapable. We would like to write our preferences in for these situations. Is this possible?

Yep.

Second thing, the cost. To do just the LPA is going to cost in the region of £316, spread over the course of 12 months. That is for a double LPA for my wife and I for both health and finances. Is this cost the going rate / reasonable?

Is that the cost to do it before they add on the government fees? I'm guessing it is because the government fees are either £82 or £42 for each depending if you are earning so if it does include those fees it means the solicitor is either doing it for next to nothing or even less than nothing and Ive never come across a solicitor that does things on that basis

Its actually quite easy to do yourself online but if the £316 includes the government fees I'd let them do it. If it doesn't, I'd say have a go at DIY you can always try and if it doesn't work out, abandon and hand it over to solicitors. I found it very easy the website leads you through the form. Try it this evening, its free to start, you only pay the fee when you register.

88engine · 11 April 2018 at 1:31PM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Is that the cost to do it before they add on the government fees? I'm guessing it is because the government fees are either £82 or £42 for each depending if you are earning so if it does include those fees it means the solicitor is either doing it for next to nothing or even less than nothing and Ive never come across a solicitor that does things on that basis

Its actually quite easy to do yourself online but if the £316 includes the government fees I'd let them do it. If it doesn't, I'd say have a go at DIY you can always try and if it doesn't work out, abandon and hand it over to solicitors. I found it very easy the website leads you through the form. Try it this evening, its free to start, you only pay the fee when you register.

Just looked at the fine print. Fees to the Office of the Public Guardian are extra...thanks for the heads up. I would have got a shock otherwise. I will take your advice and have a go myself. Is that £82 for a health LPA + another £82 for a finances LPA? And then my wife would need to do the same...so I would be looking at £82 x 4 = £328. To then pay a solicitor another £300+ seems madness.

AnotherJoe · 11 April 2018 at 2:10PM

88engine wrote: »

Just looked at the fine print. Fees to the Office of the Public Guardian are extra...thanks for the heads up. I would have got a shock otherwise. I will take your advice and have a go myself. Is that £82 for a health LPA + another £82 for a finances LPA? And then my wife would need to do the same...so I would be looking at £82 x 4 = £328. To then pay a solicitor another £300+ seems madness.

Yep you got it. Don't worry, my solicitor wanted £1200 to do all 4 so yours is a bargain !

88engine · 11 April 2018 at 3:06PM

AnotherJoe wrote: »

Yep you got it. Don't worry, my solicitor wanted £1200 to do all 4 so yours is a bargain !

Thanks again. After doing a bit of research I feel way more confident about doing my own will and LPA online now - I think it is fear of the unknown that means solicitors can probably get away with charging extortionate fees for doing them.

£1,200 is utter madness. I was astounded at my £316, just doubling my outlay. It is discounted, as through my work benefits, but still ridiculous.

silvercar · 11 April 2018 at 6:15PM

MSE article on Lasting Power of Attorney can be found here.

The main thread discussing it, which had some interesting points raised about the necessity or not of a health LPA can be found here.

sheramber · 11 April 2018 at 6:26PM

A power of Attorney cease on your death so does not apply to anything happening after your death.

You should appoint a guardian/s for your children in your will.

Primrose · 11 April 2018 at 6:34PM

88engine wrote: »

Thanks again. After doing a bit of research I feel way more confident about doing my own will and LPA online now - I think it is fear of the unknown that means solicitors can probably get away with charging extortionate fees for doing them.

£1,200 is utter madness. I was astounded at my £316, just doubling my outlay. It is discounted, as through my work benefits, but still ridiculous.

On the law of averages, your parents, because they are older than you, are more likely to need to have Powers of Attorney in place. Have they had them done, registered and copies given to their appointed representatives. These things can work both ways!
.

Savvy_Sue · 11 April 2018 at 7:47PM

88engine wrote: »

Thanks again. After doing a bit of research I feel way more confident about doing my own will and LPA online now - I think it is fear of the unknown that means solicitors can probably get away with charging extortionate fees for doing them.

DIY LPA yes, unless you have a lot of complications (maybe take advice on how many pages of excruciating detail to add: our solicitor was of the view that we should trust our attorneys ... and also that we only needed finance at this stage).

But DIY will? no, please, don't do it. Pay for advice to go through your own situation and work out what you want, pay for a professional solicitor, not a will-writing service - if this is what you get through work, then by all means use them to sound out questions but get the actual work done by a solicitor!

AnotherJoe · 11 April 2018 at 8:35PM

Some great points above, try not to hamstring your attorneys with too much detail, if you don't trust them enough to make the right decisions perhaps they are the wrong attorneys, and also by being very specific there may be edge cases you haven't considered where forcing your attorneys one way might produce the opposite effect of what you want.
And, be careful you aren't trying to put stuff in an LPA that should be in a will. Who cares for the children after your deaths for example, far more likely than the edge case of you both being incapacitated and unable to make expressions of how you'd like them to be looked after.

Lasting power of attorney

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