Lasting Power of Attorney – the DIY option … ?

Last month, I sat down with my elderly parents (it still feels weird referring to them in that way – they just don’t seem ‘old’ to me!) and we thrashed out their lasting powers of attorney instructions.

We interspersed the tough conversations with lots of gallows humour (that’s how we do it in my family) and submitted the applications to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).  We could have done it online, but my dad is a self-proclaimed dinosaur and insisted we send them in the post (with cheques … none of that new-fangled online banking stuff for him!)

About a month later we received confirmation that the applications had been received and could take around 12 weeks to be processed.

To my surprise then about a week later, we received another letter (or rather four of them – one for each LPA) to say that the applications had been processed (and not rejected!) and we could expect to receive certificates within about five weeks. Well played OPG – under-promised and over-delivered!

Anyway – despite the intense stress of making sure everyone signed everything in the right place and in the right order (that’s important!), the process was remarkably straightforward and simple.

Dominic and Daniel (our financial planners here at Solomon’s) have been encouraging clients to put LPAs in place sooner rather than later and to have a go at doing it yourselves rather than incurring the expense of engaging a legal representative (we were quoted over £1,000 for a solicitor to do it!).

I am pleased to confirm that my experience of helping my parents do theirs was really positive.  It’s always great when someone in the team here has the ‘actual’ lived experience of things like this, so that we can confidently make recommendations to you and explain the process and the potential obstacles.  If Daniel or Dominic have advised you to ‘have a go’ – I would encourage you to do so – it feels daunting I know, but it really wasn’t difficult in the end.

Just a couple of things to bear in mind …

~  you need someone to be the applicant and someone else to be the ‘proposer’ (an independent person – could be a friend or trusted colleague) to say that they have discussed the LPA with the donor (the person who the LPA is for) to ensure that they are not under any duress to sign their powers away!  You need attorneys (and possibly replacement attorneys).  And they all need to sign the forms in the correct order.  With the ones we did – we were all together in the same place at the same time, so it was easy to do this; but will be slightly more difficult if you cannot arrange such a gathering (we did it over a shared meal together which made it a far more enjoyable experience!)

~  there are two types of LPA – one for finance and property related matters and another for health and medical issues (the cost currently is £82.00 per LPA per individual)

~  get them in place well in advance of when you think you might need to enact them (as it can take many months to complete the process – especially if the application forms are rejected at any point)

As ever – if you need any further information or help with this, please get in touch – we are always happy to assist.