Powers of Attorney
There are three types of Power of Attorney:
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Lasting Power of Attorney
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Enduring Power of Attorney
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General Power of Attorney
Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA)
A Lasting Power of Attorney is a document that gives power to another person (called your ‘Attorney’) to make decisions for you. They are needed because the law doesn’t allow another person to do this for you without one, even if you are married.
There are two types of Lasting Power of Attorney:
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Property and Financial Affairs
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Health and Welfare
Lasting Powers of Attorney can be limited in lots of ways if you want them to be. They can only apply to some assets (such as a business), or can apply to all assets. You can forbid certain actions from being taken within a Lasting Power of Attorney.
You can have more than one Attorney, and you can have replacements should they die.
A Lasting Power of Attorney will last until you die, or until you cancel it. It will allow your Attorneys to manage your affairs if you lose capacity and cannot make decisions yourself.
Lasting Powers of Attorney can be complicated if you want to put conditions on the appointment, and in such cases it is important to take legal advice.
You can find the answers to some Frequently Asked Questions here
Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA)
EPAs are the old version of LPAs. They are still valid, but they have different rules.
They do not require registration to be used (unlike a Lasting Power of Attorney), but if the attorneys feel that the donor has lost, or is losing, mental capacity, they are required to register it with the Office of the Public Guardian.
General Power of Attorney
General Powers of Attorney are documents that allow another person to act for you immediately. They do not require registration, and can be created instantly. However, if the donor loses mental capacity, they end immediately.
They are useful for short term assistance, and generally we create them to bridge the long gap between creation and registration of an Lasting Power of Attorney.
They are also known as Ordinary Powers of Attorney.
