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Power of Attorney Solicitors

Ensure your affairs remain in good order

Power of Attorney Solicitors

Too often, discussions around powers of attorney are left until a later stage in life; no matter what age you are, it is important to consider how your financial and medical needs will be met in the future if you lose capacity.

We encourage our clients to consider preparing a Lasting Power of Attorney at the same time they turn their mind to preparing a Will with us. Talking to our power of attorney solicitors about these important legal documents at an early point in life will significantly reduce the stress that can be associated with the process, giving you and your family much-needed peace of mind.

It is important to consider the fact that no individual has the ability to make decisions on behalf of another without first being appointed as their attorney under either a Lasting Power of Attorney or Enduring Power of Attorney or as a court-appointed Deputy (see below). Even married couples or those in civil partnerships are unable to make decisions for their spouse or partner without these authorities in place.

Lasting Powers of Attorney enable attorneys to make decisions relating to your financial affairs as well as your personal health and welfare on your behalf if you become unable to make those decisions yourself. Your attorneys can step in when needed to ensure your affairs remain in good order and to protect your assets together with articulating your personal wishes when it comes to the type of medical treatment you receive.

Why Choose Shakespeare Martineau?

Making attorney arrangements and preparing the forms themselves can be challenging, but the process is made much simpler with the guidance and counsel of our specialist power of attorney solicitors. There are plenty of other advantages to choosing Shakespeare Martineau for your Lasting Power of Attorney preparation:

We can help you consider your options at an early stage and put documents in place to ensure you’re supported by the people you choose if you lose capacity. By getting to know you and your personal circumstances, we can provide pragmatic and frank advice about potential issues that may arise should you select unsuitable attorneys
We’ll ensure you understand the significance and importance of the documents and the level of authority being placed on your attorneys to help you make reasoned decisions regarding who you appoint into the role and importantly, how they are to make decisions on your behalf
We can prepare specialist Lasting Powers of Attorney enabling your attorney to manage your business affairs should you need to separate this decision-making process from your own personal matters.
It may be that you need to secure short-term support from an attorney to assist you with a particular transaction, for example, completing a property sale or purchase on your behalf while you are out of the country. In these situations, we will prepare a General Power of Attorney as a solution.

Appointing Objective Attorneys

We appreciate that appointing the right attorneys can be a very difficult process and you may not be able to select appropriate attorneys from amongst your family or friends. In such circumstances, it might be appropriate to appoint a partner from within our specialist power of attorney team to act in this role, ensuring a professional and objective approach is taken to managing your financial affairs.

What Is an Enduring Power of Attorney?

Enduring Powers of Attorney were the predecessors to Lasting Powers of Attorney. It is not possible to create new Enduring Powers of Attorney but those already put in place continue to be legally effective. We can assist your attorneys to register the document with the Office of the Public Guardian so they can assist you in the event of mental incapacity.

The way we help you

We can act in a number of ways, from an advisory role around the creation of powers of attorney and ensuring they are drafted in a suitable way to cater for your needs, right through to stepping in as your professional attorney if this is a service you require.

All of our advice is borne out of listening closely to your individual circumstances. We understand that facing up to the consequences of mental capacity issues can be a stressful and emotional time, and we’re here to put a plan in place which works for you, affording you complete peace of mind.

Your journey through the legal process

Not everyone is aware of how the process of engaging power of attorney solicitors works, so we’ve provided an overview below to give you some peace of mind:

Once you’ve submitted a contact form via the enquire now panel to the right of this page, a member of our team will call you back to discuss your enquiry
You’ll then receive an initial consultation within 24 hours via Zoom or telephone to understand in more detail the issues you’re facing
Should you then decide that you wish to use our services, you’ll receive a breakdown of all our costs and a pack of on-boarding documents. We will work closely alongside you to ensure that whichever private client service you are interested in we are here to support you and find you the right solution

To find out more and how we could help contact us today or call us on 0800 689 0746 for a free confidential consultation.

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Meet the team

Key contact

Matt Parr

Legal Director

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Frequently asked questions

We've put together a short list of commonly asked questions to help you understand more about powers of attorney.

If you have any further questions please do not hesitate to get in contact with us.

What is a power of attorney?

What are the different types of power of attorney?

Do I need a business lasting power of attorney (LPA)?

It is also possible, in some circumstances, to put two property and financial affairs lasting powers of attorney deeds in place; one relating to your personal finances and property matters and one relating specifically to the running of a business or businesses on your behalf – sometimes called a business LPA. The rules around the use of a business LPA are complex and it is important that both this LPA and your personal finance and property LPA are drafted in such a way that they work together and your attorney’s role is clearly defined or limited as necessary.

What decisions can be made under a power of attorney?

Read our guide on things that can and cannot be done under a power of attorney.

Lasting powers of attorney are so powerful, which is why you must appoint an attorney or attorneys that you trust wholeheartedly to make the right decisions for you. Sometimes, contrary to popular belief, family members such as adult children are not always the appropriate people to appoint in the role. We will happily discuss the practicalities and important points to consider when choosing an attorney with you.

How do I appoint someone as an attorney?

You first need to prepare your lasting power of attorney (LPA) deed, setting out how and when your chosen attorney(s) can act on your behalf. If you wish to appoint an attorney to manage both your property and financial affairs as well as your health and welfare matters, you will need to prepare two separate LPA deeds.

You and your chosen attorney(s) must then sign your LPA deed for it to be valid. Your attorney(s) signs it to confirm that they are happy to accept the role and that they will make any decisions they have to in your best interests and yours alone.

Usually, a solicitor will also sign the LPA deed as your certificate provider. This means they sign the deed to confirm that, in their opinion, you understand the LPA and that you are not under any pressure from third parties to put it in place against your will.

Once the LPA deed has been signed it is valid, but not effective, and cannot be used by your attorney(s) to help you until such time as it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian.

How does a power of attorney work?

As and when your attorney(s) believe they need to begin using the power in your best interests, they need to ensure that third party organisations (such as your bank, utility providers and HM Revenue and Customs) have sight of the registered power of attorney deed and record their legal entitlement to discuss your affairs with them. Often this involves your attorney(s) sending certified copies of the registered deed to the various organisations.

Sometimes your attorney(s) may seek confirmation from a doctor that you have lost or are losing capacity before they will try and step in and act on your behalf. Often a diagnosis of something like Alzheimer’s is the trigger for the attorney(s) to begin preparing to help you.

Although your attorney(s) can make decisions for you, they are obliged to involve you as much as possible in the decision-making process. In the vast majority of cases, you will be able to make some decisions about your affairs yourself, even if you need a little help. If you can then you must be allowed to make those decisions. Regardless, whatever decision is made for you, your attorney(s) must make those decisions based on what they perceive to be in your best interests. They cannot use their authority over your affairs to benefit others.

Your registered health and welfare power of attorney should be noted on your medical records so that if you are admitted to hospital your doctors will be able to determine who they should contact about the care or treatment they intend to give you.

Who can witness a power of attorney signature?

Anyone can witness your signature as the donor (the person setting up the LPA), provided they are over 18, not an attorney or a replacement attorney (or employed by one of your attorneys or replacement attorneys).

When your attorney(s) or replacement attorney(s) sign the deed, again anyone over the age of 18 can witness their signature, except you as the donor. This does mean that attorneys or replacement attorneys can witness each other’s signatures.

In order to avoid any allegation or suspicion of impropriety, however, we would recommend that someone entirely independent from the process acts as a witness if possible – such as a friend or neighbour.

How long does it take to get a power of attorney?

We can support you with preparing your LPA deed very quickly. However, if you have appointed more than one attorney or replacement attorneys then the LPA deed will have to be sent to each of them in turn to sign it - which may take a few weeks.

Once all parties have signed the LPA deed and it is submitted to the Office of the Public Guardian, the registration process can take eight to 12 weeks.

How much does it cost to prepare a power of attorney?

Our fees start at £750 plus VAT for each LPA deed prepared. This includes one of our solicitors acting as your certificate provider, liaising with your attorney(s) and, ultimately, registering the document with the Office of the Public Guardian for you.

The Office of the Public Guardian charges a fee of £82 per LPA deed in order to accept an application to register it. It is sometimes possible to reduce the fee, or apply for a total fee exemption, if your financial circumstances mean that you qualify for the same. We can apply for any assistance you may be entitled to on your behalf.

How do I trigger a power of attorney?

Once all the relevant parties have signed your power of attorney deed, it is valid but not effective and it cannot be used by your attorney(s) to help manage your affairs in that state.

In order to ‘invoke’ the power of attorney deed (and make it legally effective), either you or your attorney(s) must apply to register it with the Office of the Public Guardian. Once it is returned, we can store the original registered LPA deed in our strong-room to ensure it is kept safe (you can request this from us at any time).

If your attorneys need it because they need to begin using it, they will need to provide us with their ID and a note from a doctor evidencing your lack of capacity before we will release it to them. We can issue certified copies of the LPA.

How do I change my power of attorney?

A power of attorney deed cannot be amended once signed by all parties. However, the individual appointment of an attorney can be revoked if necessary, provided you have the capacity to take the appropriate steps. In order to do this, you will need to prepare a deed of partial revocation which refers explicitly to the revocation of one (or more) of the original named attorney(s) or replacement attorney(s). The remainder of the LPA deed will remain effective.

If you intend to revoke the appointment of more than one attorney or replacement attorney, it will often be easier to revoke the entire power of attorney deed and replace it with a new one.

It is important that you seek advice before attempting to revoke the appointment of an attorney, as the legal implications of doing so might render the deed entirely ineffective depending on how it is drafted.

How do I cancel a power of attorney?

Your LPA deed can be revoked by you, even once registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, provided you still have capacity. In order to do this, you will need to prepare a deed of revocation and send this to the Office of the Public Guardian which will register the revocation centrally.

If you intend to revoke a power of attorney, you should consider replacing it with a new one as soon as possible in order to ensure your affairs can be managed by your newly chosen attorney(s) if you lose capacity.

How long is a power of attorney valid?

A power of attorney is valid for life, until you chose to revoke it, or until all your chosen attorneys and/or replacement attorneys have died.

Your LPA deed ceases to have effect immediately on your death and your attorneys lose the authority they had to act at that point in time. Instead, your chosen executors in your will take over the management of your affairs and administer your estate. Your chosen attorneys and executors may be the same people, but it is important that they are acting under the correct authority at any point in time. Read more about the importance of having a will in place.

What other powers of attorney are there?

If you simply want or need to appoint someone to act for you now to complete a transaction for you, for example, while you are out of the country, then preparing an LPA is unlikely to be the right thing to do. Instead, you may want to consider preparing an ordinary power of attorney (sometimes referred to as a general power of attorney).

The process of preparing an ordinary power of attorney is much less time consuming and is relatively straightforward. Read more about the benefits of an ordinary power of attorney.

Meet the team

Our team of experts are here to help you navigate through your private client matters contact us today or call us on 0800 689 0746 for a free confidential consultation.