Lasting Power of Attorney

Our team of Solicitors and Lawyers understand the stress when a loved one passes away. Combining this with our working knowledge of private client law and experience in drafting allows us to provide a high quality service to each of our clients no matter how complex the situation.

A Lasting Power of Attorney (known as an LPA) allows an individual to appoint one or more individuals (known as an attorney) to make decisions or assist you with making decisions on your behalf. For this reason an attorney should be someone you know well and trust. Having an LPA in place will enable your attorney to legally take your role and make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to do so e.g if you lose mental capacity.

Please note that you can only grant a LPA whilst you are mentally able to do so and are deemed to have capacity. Therefore, we advise our clients to plan ahead and take steps whilst you are able to do so. The LPA will need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used and often this can be lengthy.

There are two types of LPA’s:

• Property and Financial Affairs
• Health and Welfare

Property and Financial Affairs

This can be used to appoint attorneys to make various decisions on the donor’s behalf and they include:

• Buy or sell any properties in place of the donor
• Deal with the bank account belonging to the donor
• Dealing with donor’s taxation issues
• Claim any benefits on behalf of the donor

Health and Welfare

This can be used to appoint attorneys to make decisions on the following, but is not limited to:

• Where the donor should live
• Whether to consent to or refuse medical treatments when necessary
• The day to day care of the donor

Lasting Powers of Attorney must be submitted to the Office of the Public Guardian and an experienced solicitor can assist you with this.

A solicitor will be required to assess the donor’s capacity to appoint a Power of Attorney ensuring that they are making such decisions on their own accord and there is no undue influence. Our experts will be able to advise you on these matters in detail.

If there is any doubt about the donor’s capacity, then a medical opinion may be sought. If an LPA is contested, then the matter will be decided by the Court of Protection if the dispute cannot be resolved. The attorney must always act in the best interest of the donor.

We understand that often instructions are given under difficult circumstances due to illness or frailty. Our solicitors would be happy to arrange for a hospital or home visit at your convenience.

At Ansham White Solicitors, we pride ourselves on our customer focused approach. Our team has 20+ years of experience completing LPA’s and issues involving the capacity of an individual.

Please call us today to arrange an initial fixed fee consultation, our private client team will be more than happy to help. We have offices based in North Harrow and the City of London which have nearby parking and good transport links. If you are calling from overseas or are unable to attend our office, we are able to conduct a video consultation via either Zoom or Microsoft Teams.