A Lasting Power of Attorney “LPA” can be written at any time during your lifetime as long as you have the necessary capacity to do so. It allows you to nominate a person (or persons) who can manage your affairs should you become incapable of managing them yourself as a result of an accident, illness, loss of capacity later in life or just not wanting to have to manage your own affairs.  Unfortunately, this will happen to most of us at some stage.

If you do not have a Lasting Power of Attorney but you need one, your nearest and dearest will have to apply through the Court of Protection, which is likely to take at least 3 months and could cost several thousand pounds!

LPAs protect your wishes during your lifetime and are complementary to your Will and should be viewed as the cheapest piece of insurance you ever buy – if you don’t need it, great, but if you do, you have saved yourself a lot of time, effort and money.  LPA’s replaced the Enduring Power of Attorney with effect from 30 September 2007.  The LPAs were introduced as a result of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and now include safeguards to prevent them being abused by unscrupulous relatives or care home workers!