70+ years
of legal expertise

- LASTING POWERS OF ATTORNEY

Helping you to make sensible steps that can safeguard your future

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Are you concerned that yourself or a loved one might soon be unable to look after your / their own affairs? Do you want to ensure that somebody you / they trust can act on your / their behalf?

Talk to KWW about a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) and how they work.

Our experienced solicitors can organise all the important legal documents to establish a Lasting Power of Attorney that can underpin big decisions concerning finance, property, health and general welfare.

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal tool that allows an individual to appoint someone with their best interests at heart (their attorney) who is empowered to make important decisions on their behalf if they were to lack the mental capacity.

Although the loss of mental capacity tends to be associated with advancing years, it can affect younger people through illness or accident. We would generally advise that an LPA is something for all mature adults to consider putting in place.

Areas we cover:

  • Lasting Powers of Attorney
  • Powers of Attorney
  • Advising the elderly
  • Estate administration
  • Estate and Inheritance
  • Tax Planning
  • Joint property and declarations of trust
  • Living Wills
  • Trusts

WANT TO KNOW MORE?

Lasting Powers of Attorney Q&A

An LPA is a legal document under which you appoint someone to handle your affairs either immediately, in the case of financial related matters, or in the event you become unable to look after yourself. It allows you to name one or more person/s who will have control over decisions about your money, property, healthcare and general welfare.

You must make the LPA when you have mental capacity, and it will continue should there come a time when your mental capacity is lost or impaired.

If you become mentally incapacitated and you do not have an LPA, decisions about your personal and financial welfare may be passed to the Court of Protection, which provides protection for those who are incapable of handling their own affairs.

Family members can apply to the Court of Protection to become a deputy but this can be a long and costly process. Of course, this is often precisely the time when quick decisions are needed and delays are to be avoided.

For someone whose income is made up of benefits and/or state pension, the family member can apply to the Department for Work and Pensions to become an appointee who receives the benefits on behalf of the person who needs it. To register the LPAs at the Office of the Public Guardian costs £82 for each LPA.

First, pick a person or persons you trust, who will act in accordance with your instructions and who you know will have your best interests at heart in the event you became incapacitated. This person, or persons, are your attorney/s.

Now decide which LPA you want. There are two types:

• A Financial Decisions LPA allows you to give someone the power to deal with your financial affairs, such as paying bills, dealing with your bank and dealing with decisions about your property.
• A Health and Care Decisions LPA allows you to give someone the power to deal with decisions that affect you, such as the type of medical treatment or other types of help you may need. It also gives formal instructions as to whether you desire life support on a permanent basis.

The Financial Decisions and Health and Care Decisions LPAs are separate documents and you can chose either or both. Often the decisions about your personal welfare and your finances are bound together, and it is prudent to have both.

Next, fill out the forms, appointing a person/s who you are sure will have your best interests at heart. The person must be over 18 years old and not bankrupt. You can also appoint a replacement attorney/s should your first choice die or become incapacitated themselves. You can also decide, if you pick more than one attorney, whether they should make all decisions jointly (ie whether one or both signatures are required).

You will also need to appoint a ‘certificate provider’. This is someone who speaks with you privately to ensure you know what powers you are giving your attorney/s, that there has been no fraud or pressure and certifies that you fully understand what you are doing. A certificate provider can be someone who has known you for two years or who has professional skills, such as a doctor or
solicitor. The certificate provider cannot be a family member. Normally, when we prepare the LPA we will be your certificate provider.

Finally, the forms have to be registered at the Office of the Public Guardian in England and Wales.

OUR CHARGES

Understanding our LPA fees

There are two types of LPAs:

● Property & Finance
● Health & Welfare

Our charges start at £400 for an individual (single) LPA and £600 for any combination of two LPAs. If you are a couple and each of you wants both types of LPA (four in total), we are able to prepare the set for £1,000.

All charges are subject to VAT.
The price excludes the court registration fee, which is currently £82 for each document.

Other potential costs include:

● Declaration of Trust from £395
● Ordinary Power of Attorney £250
● Registration or renewal of an existing Lasting Power or Enduring Power of Attorney £500
● Court of Protection Deputy application as per statutory regulations £950
● Court of Protection application fee £365.

There is no charge for Notice of Severance of Joint Tenancy (with Will instructions).

For more details, contact our LPAs specialist Jack Haskew on 0208 979 1131.

To arrange a chat with one of our team of specialists, contact us

Jack Haskew

Partner / Head of Private Client

Jack, who hails from the great American city of Boston, qualified as a solicitor in 2006 and has since honed his expertise in immigration, tax and private client services.

A 1997 graduate of the University of Southern California law school, Jack began his legal practice working on the Navajo Nation in Utah as the managing attorney of a rural legal aid office.

Jack has played a key role in helping us embrace a range of technology-based solutions to client administration, making the firm more efficient and speeding up matters for clients. He was appointed a partner at KWW in November 2022.

A father to three sons, Jack says he lives in a world of baseballs, Nerf bullets and the persistent crackle and thud of heavy weapons fire from what was once the family television.

Contact Us

Please complete the form for a call or email from one of our Lasting Power of Attorney experts:

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KWW Form Notes

Replaces Elementor Pop-up contact form template for GENERAL pages. NB: Notifications may require regular updates per staff changes; notices default to relevant partners. LPA notifications to Jack, cc to Karen only. Page-specific contact forms based on this one, labelled accordingly. 07/2022 JH
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Contact us

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