Lasting Power of Attorney Question.

I seem to be out on a limb with this (and thank you for the kind words Lathyrus😀). I can't remember all the 'what if's now, but I do know there were several as well as the skiing woman. We just wouldn't have thought about many of them, so if we'd done it ourselves we wouldn't know we'd failed to consider them, if you see what I mean.

The trouble is that we only do this once, and by the time we find out whether what we chose was for the best we are likely to be 'too far gone' to know about it.

I'm certainly not in favour of unnecessary expense on things like this, but with hindsight I am pleased that we did things the way we did, although as yet nothing has been put to the test.

Same as Chestnut

I did mine online with no help. However, to avoid making a mistake or using the wrong words (legally) I kept it very simple. There are 'preferences' which are things you would prefer to be done and 'instructions' which are things you want to be done. I didn't put anything because I can put things like that on a separate sheet to be kept with the LPAs and my will. I can tell my daughters that I don't want to be kept alive on a machine for instance. The LPA doesn't specify this so they can do that anyway. You can go into a lot of detail on your LPA or you can put nothing and just leave it to your family which is what I did.

Do it on line. Any problems phone the Office Of The Public Guardian who are really helpful.

It’s really not difficult to do them yourself. You just download the forms, fill them in and send them off. Only you do need to read the instructions very carefully, particularly IIRC as regards signing and dating. Any mistake means it’ll be rejected and you will have to start - and pay! - again.

We did ours at the beginning of the first lockdown, no problem.

That sounds very high to me.

Last year our solicitor charged us half that

( welfare and financial POA for the two of us, including
OPG registration fee. )

I should say they were friends as well as neighbours so they knew mum well.

We did ours ourselves. The helpline that you can ring if you have any questions is excellent

We also completed the forms ourselves online. In fact, the solicitor who dealt with my mum's will recommended we do it ourselves as it was so much cheaper.
We asked two of my mums neighbours to witness it and it was all very straightforward.

To do exactly what your solicitor has quoted £1400 for will cost £368 to do online. There is a reduction if you are on a low income and free if you're on certain benefits. Everything is explained online, maybe print out the forms and see what you think.
It is straightforward online, if it's incorrect it won't be registered so you can't really go wrong.

I did it myself it was relatively simple as long as you do the signing of witnesses etc in the correct order i think it cost £100+ cant quite remember.

Oh. Obviously I was lucky.

I bow to Doodledogs experience. She’s a very sensible poster.

Honestly, it was easy to do myself. You don’t need special witnesses, just people who know you and can check you know what you’re doing, without coercion.

I did ask a local solicitor to check it before I registered it. He did it for free.

£1400 is outrageous.

If that is for 2 people, and you are getting both health and financial POAs as well as registration, I think that is a good price. We paid more than that back in 2020.

I do think it is a good idea to get a solicitor to talk you through it, as for some of the there are implications you may not have considered. Ours was able to explain about clients who had found themselves in seemingly unlikely situations (eg being unable to access the bank because of a skiing accident abroad that left them in traction) that having someone with access to their accounts alleviated. We would never have thought of that sort of thing, and there were other questions that I felt we benefited from having her expertise to guide us.