What if I’m Too Ill to Manage for Myself?

If you are too ill, mentally, or physically, to manage your finances or make key decisions, the tool that lets your family step in and help is the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA).

This doesn’t mean they can take over your life – they can make decisions for you only when you can’t do that for yourself, and they have to act in your best interests.

If you need someone to step in and help you, and you don’t have an LPA, you are condemning one of your family to the long, bureaucratic, and expensive process of applying to be appointed as a Court Deputy, to manage your affairs under the direction of the Court, which is just as grim as it sounds.

It has always been a good idea to have LPAs and the older you are, the greater the risk of sudden or progressive illness, but sudden illness and accidents can happen to anyone at any time.

Now that we have the added risk of COVID and, for some, the continuing, crushing burden of ‘long COVID’, the need for LPAs is greater than ever.

There are two types of LPA – the Property and Financial Affairs LPA and the Health and Welfare LPA.

The Property and Financial Affairs LPA is what lets the people you have appointed, help you with anything from paying your bills to selling your house.

If you are too ill to make a decision about your medical treatment, it is the Health and Welfare LPA that keeps those decisions in the hands of those who care for you the most.

At Colemans, we have long experience of helping clients and their families though the complex law, and the even more complex practical issues, relating to LPAs. For more information on LPA’s email us on PrivateClient@colemans.co.uk, or call on 01628 631 051 to ask to speak to a solicitor in our Private Client team.

Categorised in: Powers of Attorney, Living Wills and Court of Protection

This post was written by Colemans Solicitors LLP