Managing your financial lifestyle and making decisions about medical treatment and long term care can become complicated if you lose the mental capacity to make these decisions for yourself. Whilst you have the mental capacity you should make a Power of Attorney to avoid unnecessary expense in future and the uncertainty and anxiety your family and business partners would face if you become incapable of making decisions. Making an LPA also means you get to choose who you would like to act on your behalf.
Property and Financial Affairs LPA
This type of LPA allows you to choose who you wish to be responsible for your financial, property and business concerns if you can no longer make decisions about them.
Inheritance Tax
You can generally gift up to the value of the inheritance tax threshold (currently £325,000) into trust without inheritance tax arising. However it is important to look at not just your own immediate inheritance tax position. Thinking of the wealth of the beneficiaries is important to determine whether a trust is a good vehicle to pass your estate into. Using this will avoid your estate adding to another estate that may already be in the inheritance tax trap.
Health & Welfare LPA
You can also put in place a Health & Welfare LPA to authorise decisions about your healthcare and personal welfare.
Registration
Both types of LPA must be registered with the office of the Public Guardian before they can be used. Failure to do this will result in a delay if the LPA is needed following incapacity.
Enduring Powers of Attorney ("EPA")
It was possible to make an EPA prior to October 2007. This type of power of attorney allowed someone to manage property and financial affairs. After October 2007 it is no longer possible to create an EPA, although if you executed one before then, it can still be used by your Attorney(s) to manage your financial, property and business affairs.
Whilst this type of power of attorney could be used immediately after signature, it must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian if the person who granted the power has become or is becoming mentally incapable of managing their financial affairs.
Medical expertise
We also have access to medical experts who can help assess whether an individual has legal capacity to make decisions concerning their affairs.
