Arranging a Lasting Power of Attorney online

It's ages since I made mine.
Is there an "Add an Attorney" button?

It'd be easier if we could see your screen.

I thought that these days you could make one document which covers both finance and medical matters? If you could do that, you could make one for your son, then copy that and paste it into a separate one for your daughter, just changing the name and address.

Or can you say your son and daughter "either jointly or separately" will have power to act for you, and print them a copy each?

This is where using a live lawyer means you can ask questions like this. It costs money but it does make it easier.

Add your son, then there should be an "add another attorney" option/button. You have to add each attorney before moving on to how they should act. Maybe you've gone too far.

I’ve just done mine through my Solucitor and there’s definitely still a need for separate PoAs. I call them Health and Wealth for ease.

I hope you manage online, Patsy70 but getting it right is imperative, so I opted to pay a bit more and get my Solicitor to do them for me.

OldFrill

Add your son, then there should be an "add another attorney" option/button. You have to add each attorney before moving on to how they should act. Maybe you've gone too far.

Yes, I didn’t see a button with the option of adding another attorney, so you may be right and I’ve gone too far.

Georgesgran. I realise I’ll need to make two separate LPAs, but I want my son and daughter to be attorneys for both.

Thank you, everyone, for responding.

I printed mine off. Very straightforward.

Oh, pleased to hear it Primrose.

I did mine through Zenco online .. easy and straightforward

I printed mine off and then filled them in by hand when I did mine a couple of years ago. Def didn’t need to pay a solicitor.

Once you complete the Forms online, the OPG will send the Print-out, which you and your Attorneys (your children) will have to sign in front of a Witness. In my case, the children came over, so did my neighbour who was the Witness.
It was easy, because my children live in the same town.

It took me 3 attempts before I got my health and welfare one right. Silly mistakes not helped by doing all 4 ( health snd wealth x2) at the same time. Really frustrating snd in retrospect I wish I had done my dh and my LPO separately but one of our children lives abroad, so signatures would have been awkward.
Take your time and be very careful with signatures, dates and initial any mistakes.
It is actually easy to do this yourself, don’t rush it. Solicitors will charge for their services plus £90 for each which does mount up.

Thank you for your advice. I won’t rush it, and intend to complete it online to avoid solicitor’s charges.

I printed these off and did them myself. They are long but there is loads of advice on each page. If people have money to waste then they can pay a Solicitor or specialist LPA adviser, but - honestly, no real need of this.

Yes, there are two - Health and Finance. Do make sure that you keep all the printed papers for each of these separately. Each page shows which it is at the bottom.

I made the mistake of using one page from a finance one with my Health one - and (obviously) got it thrown back at me.

Also do note, that if you are on some benefits (like me on Pension Credit), there is No Charge for having these registered.

We just printed the forms off (for both) and filled them in. You do need to read the instructions very carefully, though, particularly as regards signing and dating.

But it’s perfectly straightforward - no need to pay a solicitor.

I am in exactly the same boat as yourself.

I did my aunts from a distance with the help of the Citizens Advice office. It went well.

Mine is all in one POA

The POAs will still need to be printed off so as to capture actual signatures. Just a tip - follow the instructions and don't staple the pages together afterwards, or they'll reject it and you have to start again. We used paperclips and that was accepted. I was a bit worried about sending so many separate pieces of paper without them being clipped together in some way.

Martin Lewis does an excellent guide regarding Power of Attorney.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/power-of-attorney/

I did mine 20 years ago (in my 50's), straightforward but you need to concentrate. Glad that the govt sorted an easy method to do this, and the zero fee for those on benefits. Everyone should do it asap.

Arranging a POA is so much easier nowadays. I did ours some years ago . Thankfully the office has changed as my first attempt ( for my mother over 20 years ago) was refused due to a comma in the wrong box. Nothing so pedantic nowadays
BUT you need to heed warnings
when my brother died I had to send his form back to the Office of the Public Guardian with a certified copy of his death certificate and also my POA so his details could be deleted from mine. The office didn't read the attached letter and separated the 2 forms. Whilst my brother's POA was dealt with, my form was returned asking for a certified copy of a Death Certificate. That had been sent in the same envelope as my brother's POA and my POA..
So you need to send in 2 copies of the death certificate if you have 2 forms to amend. Don't rely on the office reading a letter which clearly states what needs to be done and certainly will not see that one death certificate can be attached to another.

Thank you everyone for your helpful advice.

Hi. You can pay for assistance but if your affairs are uncomplicated (probably 95% of people) then it’s not really necessary.
There’s a lot of good advice and guidance on this site www.lpa-agency.co.uk/

I keep putting off doing my POA’s and it worries me.
If I do it online do I have to print all the pages out or do I just do the forms with my kids and submit to have them printed and returned for me to get them signed ?
I don’t have a printer but if I have to print the pages it would still be cheaper to buy one than to pay solicitors fees.