Lasting Power of Attorney Question.

UPDATE : Yesterday, had a letter from the OPG saying that they have written to everyone named on my LPAs and have given them 4 weeks from April 1st, to reply (with any objection I guess.) If they don’t hear from anyone, the LPAs will be registered and sent back to me for safe keeping, I guess.
A poster further up, suggested making certified copies for the children.

We did it through a solicitor- it was expensive ! but she talked us through it and explained everything. We named our children as replacement attorneys. I am so glad we did it. My husband now has Alzheimers Disease , of course he would not now be able to act on my behalf . I can act on his behalf. If a time comes when I am no longer in a position to do this our children can step in and take over. Our GP practice, dental practice and bank have copies and I have just registered the POA with the bank. We have the original documents s locked safely away and also have certified copies. I now feel reassured because I can see our GP to discuss any concerns I have about my husband. I was also in a position to speak to the bank and make quite sure my DH is not able to register for online banking- he has spoken about doing that and presents well , so any one at the bank would could be forgiven for not recognising his condition. If he had access to online banking I know it would be disastrous!!! The bank are now fully aware of the situation and have him down as a vulnerable client. It is expensive to use a solicitor! It is important to do POA regardless of the chosen method.

I am currently in the process of doing both of these myself. I have printed off both forms (thank goodness I have a printer that is very good regarding ink!!!. Have started filling them in, loads of advice and information on each page. Have to ensure I get dates of birth for my children and their addresses correct. Apart form that cannot see any problems.
The witness needs to be someone who has known you at least two years, which is pretty easy to find, and signature witnesses (as in wills) are just signing to say it is YOU that is signing them.

As I am in receipt of Guaranteed Pension Credit I have also downloaded and printed off the form that will mean that I should have nothing to pay (except postage).

Cannot believe how much people (not even properly qualified solicitors) charge to complete these for people - seems to be a real scam to me.

I did mine at the same time as changing my will in 2020 as it was cheaper to do it all together. I did it via my solicitor can't remember how much it cost . But by using a solicitor I know it's all done correctly and given me peace of mind . My daughter and son in law are my attorneys for both POF attorney.

Thanks Jane43 👍

I'm just doing Mum's then will move onto my husband and mine. £92 for each one. I've completed the finance one and found it simple enough. Started the health one and I've asked my sister to go through it with Mum and me next week. I got a papercopy so I could do it a bit at a time. There is an information and help book with it to walk you through it.
You need to discuss who you want as attorneys and witnesses before you start. It's not difficult unless you have lots of opinions on things then perhaps I would use some legal help.

crazyH

Just posted mine - Friday.
Can someone tell me please , what happens next? I did read it up, but nothing like hearing from the horse’s mouth (sorry) - ie from someone, who has done it,

You can check the progress online if you have an account. We posted ours just before Christmas and four weeks ago we and all the Attorneys got a letter saying we had three weeks to change our minds. The online information tells me that we should receive further communications by March 3rd, then we will know whether the applications have been successful or not, so fingers are crossed they have been. We only did Health and Welfare LPAs but if they are successful we will do Finance as well.

I took the forms to a Citizens Advice Bureau appointment and the lady helped me to fill the forms.

Do it yourselves. Or ask a younger family member to help.It costs about £84 per paper per person, so for both of you it'll cost 4 x £84. Can't remember now, but you can get it half price if your income is under a certain limit.I did mine by printing out the forms and filling them in with a pen and posting them. You can do it online.

Mums was £900 all in for both, my dad, (divorced almost 50 years) who has savings, good pension, uses the state pension to top up his savings, is a full time miser, refused to pay that kind of money so asked my sister to do it free (she's a Paralegal).

He has since complained to my mum it was a mistake as he thought she would do other stuff for him now she knows his finances (help him out, take him places.....) Mum told him to go to a solicitor and get it cancelled and have ALL his daughters put On it (he cut us out due to her being his favourite). He says he cants, he can't afford that!

He also hates confrontation with her! Yet will snap at 2 of us and not appreciate it when we won't stand for it and answer back. He's his own worse enemy. He's got himself into a pickle as he's insistent she will look after him yet we know the opposite, but he won't see it!

For 2 people I think that's fair

I did mine on my own about 10 years ago and its quite straightforward, and very definitely cheaper - no need for any solicitor.

Try and find some reviews on this. Solicitor.

Do you want to have your LPA on both on Health and Welfare and Property and Financial Affairs?

May also be helpful if you have a Will sorted before you do this.

I did both several years ago.

And l think l paid around £1200 for the LPA. So the price you were quoted sounds good.

Solicitors often do special prices on LPA's etc to bring in other business.

So l would get this done asap a nond don't be tempted to do it yourself.

Good Luck
👍🍀⚖️📃

Don't pay a solicitor if you know who you want to be a power of attorney and they have agreed. If you pay someone, you give them the information and they tick the appropriate boxes. The decisions you make are yours and yours alone, a solicitor cannot make them for you. The explanatory notes which come with the forms are really good so you can have a really good think about what you want.

Iwtwab12bow

Please, please don't do it yourself. My husband was flattered into doing it for a cousin. Then some distant relatives got involved and made my husbands life a misery ,we also involved a solicitor. We ended up out of pocket,the relatives badgered the solicitor every day and cost the estate a fortune we were considerably out of pocket and my husband had a nervous breakdown.

I’m sorry to hear of your experience but that was really rooted in dysfunctional relationships wasn’t it? If families are going to behave badly, I guess having a solicitor involved won’t prevent problems anyway

Seem to remember there is a question asking if other people should be informed. We said no, because in our case there aren’t any. Perhaps that is how the distant relatives got involved.
It really is straightforward but care needs to be taken. Saying that I have just sent off my third effort, the second was my fault as I forgot to sign the last cheque.
I was given 50% discount. Costs were raised recently from £82 to £92 to register each application.

Please, please don't do it yourself. My husband was flattered into doing it for a cousin. Then some distant relatives got involved and made my husbands life a misery ,we also involved a solicitor. We ended up out of pocket,the relatives badgered the solicitor every day and cost the estate a fortune we were considerably out of pocket and my husband had a nervous breakdown.

I used Which to do POA’s for both of us ( 4 in total) they charged £460 and then each POA is £92 to register it with the court of protection. I tried to do them myself originally but eventually gave up and let Which do the work. I found the process simple and logical.

Goodness, that's a lot!! We just sent for the forms, read the guidance notes, decided what & who we wanted, all the right people signed them , that was that!! Dead simple, nothing to it, and it's around £90pp per power - finance/health.

Which! have advice about this you can do the forms with them online and they will check that they are done correctly.

We updated our Wills and LPAs for both Health & Finance four months ago. We paid slightly more than OP.
Martin Lewis advises us all to take out LPAs as if you lose capacity you can only do this through the Courts at £5,000+ and it takes six months.

We did our own online. Not too difficult & each LPA cost us £80 to register it. We did 2 Financial & 2 Medical. You just need a bit of common sense & logic.

QuadraGrannyIsland

It’s so much better and cheaper to produce the LPA’s yourself. Here is the link:
www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney

Hi Quadra, I have just seen the link you posted! I think that we were both typing at the same time time! A big THANK YOU.

You can remove an attorney if they become incapacitated. I had to do that when my husband developed dementia.

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.

Hi Chestnut, do you by chance have a link to the online one you used please. I have been putting off doing it because I thought I would need to go to a solicitor and unfortunately I have mobility problems. Thanks