Lesson 1 - Setting the Scene

Before we get into the really dense legal detail, we wanted to highlight the basics.  If you found our website, there is a good chance you’ve already come across some of these terms.  Even so, to make sure your familiar below is a quick summary of the types of LPA available and who’s who.  

Types of LPA

LPAs are broken down into two types:

1. Health and Welfare – this type of LPA deals with the appointment of attorneys to make decisions for you about day-to-day matters, your health care & where you live.
2. Property and Financial Affairs - this type of LPA appoints people to make decisions on your behalf about things like banking, investments, settling bills and whether to sell (or buy) assets, including your home.

Our service includes both types of LPA as we feel it is prudent to put both forms of LPA in place. There are a couple of points that differentiate them, but we’ll highlight these to you as and when necessary. When we refer to ‘LPAs’ in this email series we mean both the Health and Welfare LPA and the Property and Financial Affairs LPA.

You do not have to appoint the same attorneys under both LPAs, but most people do.

Who’s who

A lasting power of attorney can involve quite a few people and a lot of the thought that goes into creating your LPAs concerns who will do what.  So you can keep track to who’s who, please see the below list of roles and the quick summary of what each one does:

1. Donor: This is you - the person who creates the LPAs and grants others the authority to make decisions on your behalf should you lose mental capacity.
2. Attorneys: Your friends or family appointed by you to make decisions on your behalf.
3. Replacement Attorneys: Other friends or family designated to step in as attorneys if the original attorneys can no longer act as your attorney.
4. Certificate Provider: An independent person who certifies that you understand the LPAs and are not under any undue pressure to create them.
5. Person to Notify: A person or people chosen by you to be informed when the LPAs are registered. This person can raise concerns if they believe the LPAs are being registered improperly or against your best interests.
6. Witnesses: Individuals who observe the signing of the LPAs to confirm the various parties’ signatures. These people are usually anyone on the day who is to hand (but note – the attorneys can’t witness your signature and vice versa).

Don’t worry if you don’t know who will perform these roles for you yet.  At this stage just giving it some thought means you’re on the right path.  Also, a number of the above roles are optional so don’t have to be filled if you don’t have anyone suitable at the moment.