The recent news articles about presenter Kate Garraway reminded me how important it is to get Lasting Powers of Attorney in place for couples. You may be aware that Kate’s husband is suffering long term affects from Covid and has been in hospital since March. It is often the simplest of things that cause problems and in Kate’s case it is dealing with the car insurance as this is in her husband’s name.
Lots of people may think about getting LPAs in place for elderly parents but not necessarily the importance of doing this for yourself.
Couples
Although many couples have jointly owned assets in a lot of cases couples will still maintain separate bank accounts often for tax reasons such as to take advantage of ISAs . However, we don’t often have utility bills, house and car insurance or TV and broadband providers in joint names.
The most important thing to note about an LPA is that you must have mental capacity in order to obtain one. The person giving their power away is the Donor and they give their power to the Attorneys. You can have as many attorneys as you want and you can specify if they should act jointly at all or times or if you are happy for them to act independently. The “lasting” bit specifically refers to the fact that the power lasts beyond incapacity. So if the Donor either permanently or temporarily loses capacity then the LPA can be used.
How do I get an LPA?
Although you can obtain an LPA by doing it yourself, we had a client recently who had been notified about his LPA and he didn’t know anything about it. He remembered signing something but did not fully grasp what it was for. It is frightening to think how easily the system can be abused.
Don’t put you or your family at risk get a fixed price quote from a Solicitor for the work so we can explain the risks and how to protect yourself, so that you fully understand what the process involves.
We have several people that can assist you here at McHale & Co but to get started please call and ask for Philippa Wright on 0161 928 3848 or email at mch@mchaleandco.co.uk