Lasting Powers of Attorney

Posted on: 07/04/2022

Category: For you

I, along with lawyers up and down the country, have been advising clients to put in place Lasting Powers of Attorneys (LPAs) since they were introduced back in 2007. Despite this, research recently undertaken by Lloyds Bank states that 80% of people over the age of 55 years have not appointed an attorney. Surely this needs to change? A Lasting Power of Attorney is such a valuable document, allowing you to appoint an attorney to step into your shoes should you be unable to deal with your own personal affairs due to an accident or illness such as a stroke or a degenerative disease. So why is the number of people without a Lasting Power of Attorney still so high?

Unfortunately, the procedure for making and using of a Lasting Power of Attorney is not perfect. Putting the documents in place, especially with some legal assistance, should be relatively straightforward. With regards to registering the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), this is a somewhat lengthy process and the OPG website currently states that it takes up to 20 weeks to register an LPA, assuming there have been no mistakes in the application. This length of time can be extremely frustrating for an attorney who needs to be able to use the Lasting Power of Attorney and that is why it is extremely important to make and register your Lasting Power of Attorney as soon as you can, so that the document is ready and waiting to be used as and when it is needed.

Other hurdles that attorneys are experiencing when using a registered LPA are the individual procedures and processes that each bank or other financial institution have. Alongside this sits the lack of training of banking and financial staff and the end result is a very frustrated attorney who is not able to do what legally they are allowed to do. The Office of the Public Guardian has advised that they have launched a consultation into making the system quicker and simpler to use. Such changes will be welcomed by all.

Don’t despair – putting a Lasting Power of Attorney in place is the right thing to do, to give you peace of mind that your affairs can be looked after. If you have business interests, a separate LPA should be put in place to cover this. However, don’t delay and put your documents in place sooner rather than later so that you or your attorneys are not affected by any delays in the processing of the documentation.