Lasting Powers of Attorney

[Lat-Literal]

Has anyone any personal experience of where having these has proven to be a godsend?

Or are they just, as I suspect, the latest legalistic fad?

My father's brother, some 11 years younger than him and with a background in financial products, rang me last night to try to push this agenda. Traditionally they have been close. As someone who keeps myself to myself, I'm not sure that he knew where I was coming from these days or me him. It turned out that he had mentioned the "need" in his last two visits to my parents, given the degenerative nature of my father's dementia condition. He had simply been met with resistance. I said to him that as his only son I had actually floated the idea across some 18 months ago, given that all my ultra business like contemporaries had ensured such things with their parents. In view of the lukewarm reception I got from each of them, I had dropped it not wishing to be a man of any force. On a further visit to my parents from my uncle today, I agreed unusually to throw myself into the family throng so as to discuss. I also indicated prior to this meeting that my mother might be for it which is to say she was keeping an open mind. I then rang a solicitor and managed to get 20 minutes of free advice. God knows how - if only I was as adept at getting anything out of today's public sector.

Anyhow, to cut a long story short, Pete who is 21 years older than me and I chatted in considerable detail for about two hours, interspersed with involvement from his wife and my Mum and Dad triggered by me so that it wasn't all "does he take sugar?". I deliberately included bits which were about photos and music so that it didn't get too heavy for them. My father looked very ill-at-ease and dug his heels in while I wasn't all "this is what I know". I also raised a lot of questions. By the time this had concluded, I think I had just about convinced myself that the man with a mind in serious decline had batted off most points with aplomb while his brother who is completely on the ball was somewhat floundering. All ready to take to the computer so that my mother, me and he would be the attorneys when needs be both jointly and separately, his aims were aborted. I thought they might well be given my softness but to be frank I think they have been so on the basis of rationality too. I am not quite as uneasy with the outcome as I thought I might be even though there is no doubt that my uncle does have more than a fair point and given POA to his own family in regard to himself.

[Petrushka]

My own late father didn't have dementia but was certainly tending that way in his last year or so. When we learnt that he was giving away his money to parasitic scammers my younger brother and I took charge of his finances sugaring any pill of embarrassment by telling him we would pay all of the bills and he needn't worry about money again. This we did until his death in 2013.

My mother, on the other hand, had very serious dementia in her last years but before she got there she agreed to allow my brother joint access to her bank account. Both Lloyds Bank and Nationwide Building Society were most helpful in these difficult circumstances. We thus never had to take out PoA. Looking at the details of your own father's condition I wonder if it might already be too late. However, I know nothing about the legalities of a PoA but thought that it needed the agreement of the person concerned.

[Lat-Literal]

My own late father didn't have dementia but was certainly tending that way in his last year or so. When we learnt that he was giving away his money to parasitic scammers my younger brother and I took charge of his finances sugaring any pill of embarrassment by telling him we would pay all of the bills and he needn't worry about money again. This we did until his death in 2013.

My mother, on the other hand, had very serious dementia in her last years but before she got there she agreed to allow my brother joint access to her bank account. Both Lloyds Bank and Nationwide Building Society were most helpful in these difficult circumstances. We thus never had to take out PoA. Looking at the details of your own father's condition I wonder if it might already be too late. However, I know nothing about the legalities of a PoA but thought that it needed the agreement of the person concerned.

Thank you for your considered comments and it comes with my respects for what you did for your parents and coped with ably.

I have boiled this down into several sections.

1. Payment of Bills: My parents drive me crazy in terms of resistance to direct debit. It is partially a generational thing. Here my uncle and I agree. There is no changing of them. Should my Dad outlive my Mum and be unable to understand bills, they will have to be paid for in some way. As the solicitor said to me, I will not especially be wanting to travel monthly into the local authority building to pay their council tax, for example, as they do, ludicrously. And yet I would do if needs be. I have limited resources. My uncle and I agree that providers don't care how they get money as long as bills are paid. Consequently, I consider that if I do not use my own money, I have the following options. A. To move in with my father in that event and to sell off my own property to release funds. B. To get him/force him in whatever state he is in to let me have access to certain money of his in his own interests, especially re his safety and security. He appears in the present day to accept that this would be fine but that it would be done informally. Should anyone question it which seems highly unlikely, all I need is proof of an audit trail which says that I took money out specifically for his well-being. If he is ok with it as indicated in earlier times, ie now - and I do love my father and care for him; I believe deep down he trusts me unlike his view on external parties - and the authorities don't like it, then they can stump up for his absolute care. They can't have it both ways.

2. His Pension: This he insists on collecting weekly at the Post Office. He will not have it sent to him in any account. It would, of course, mainly be this money which would ideally pay the bills. But, notwithstanding dementia, if he were to fall and if I Mum was neither alive or able to move, that money could build up there and not in principle be able to be accessed. He is crystal clear even today on this issue. When he was of sound mind and older neighbours weren't, he collected their pensions for them from the Post Office. Sometimes they weren't even of the same gender. No questions, according to him, were asked of him, nor did they provide a short note to say they endorsed it. A significant part of me believes this to be true. It's a weird old world. His view today is that if and when it came to the situation I outline, which he rather doubts, he would appreciate it although not demand that I went there weekly and drew the money out for him just as he had done for other people. If he really had to write a note authorising it he would he supposes have to do it. On the other hand, I am his only son for goodness sake. If he tells me that is what he wants then it is nobody else's business to question my motives. Indeed, and I suppose I ought to feel some sort of accolade at least in this although it is far from the plain sailing that it appears - I'm the golden one unless I come across as "them out there" - then it goes pear shaped - how dare they question me?

3. Support for his Care: A POA divides into two. One concerns finance. The other concerns care which has financial implications. My principal concern, being the sensitive soul that I am although I would fully accept I can also be rational and, worse, abrasive in opinion but don't let the latter imply anything other than what it is, is that all three of us have decent enough conditions when we are alive. I have been keen to ensure that there are clear distinctions for now between my finances and those of my parents, notwithstanding they have had considerable inputs into mine. On this we all agree wholeheartedly and it is really about to happen now with my mortgage about to be reduced to virtually nothing. So that is my security. It isn't massive amounts of money but if I did outlive them and I did find it tough financially, I am a free agent. I can release funds and take off to the Black Isle if necessary. Hello Scotland - or if not Oldham or more likely Cardigan. Then we go to theirs. Their money. I couldn't give a toss about money beyond security and not only mine but that of us all.

I have a clear vision. It is that my parents should stay in their home for as long as is possible. They talk about moving. If it is another home locally, fine. If it did get to the point where there was just one of them and it really wasn't sustainable, then the money in their estate goes on their care down to the £23,000 when proper support services kick in. I'm relaxed on this point. Should the money go in that direction, their well-being is what matters to me first. Life is life. They know that. If my mother dies first and it was just my father and me, I'd have been worried that the state and we could disagree at a certain point on whether he was a danger to himself and other people, ie inadvertently setting things alight. A POA implied to me that I might be given added power to disagree on them taking action ahead of time. But the solicitor informs me that in this day and age it is generally an informal decision involving relatives and professionals. The care element of a POA is not always essential. As for my uncle, he is not especially interested in that aspect either for himself or for my Dad.

He just moaned this afternoon about people needing care not being able to hold onto their entire estate. Well, I think it turns out that this is the SDP moment when I become the more realistic one. Some have some money. Others don't. We can't subside them all including ourselves. The threshold could be higher as the Tories tried to introduce in the campaign and it was faced with a backlash from people who didn't know there was even a lower threshold so it was dropped. What will be will be. There is, of course, the option of renting a house out to pay for care costs. This is precisely what is happening now with one ex neighbour, 93, who has just had to leave for a care home. I now seriously doubt a POA can help in these matters.

Sorry - there is a 4 and 5 too, more of which a little later.

[ardcarp]

My sister and I had joint PoA for our mother for a few years around 15-20 years ago. We only sought it when our Ma knew she was struggling to manage her affairs and willingly agreed to it. Our family solicitor sorted it with no problem. As my sister lives abroad, I did most of the stuff, but it wasn't arduous, and we agreed about everything. The only snags occurred when our mother died and we, as executors, had to deal with banks, building societies, etc. Lloyds was DREADFUL, not accepting a certified copy of the death certificate, for instance, and being generally unhelpful and inefficient. But that's another issue.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Looking at the details of your own father's condition I wonder if it might already be too late. However, I know nothing about the legalities of a PoA but thought that it needed the agreement of the person concerned.

Lat: I think Pet has hit on the crucial issues.The agreement of the person concerned does have to be obtained, and they do have to be still sufficiently 'with it' for the consent to be meaningful and so legally valid. So it needs sorting out well before the real need for it arises. Of course, as Pet says, you might still get by without it but it depends on the financial institution involved I'd guess.

My sister, 2 yrs older then me, still with it but rather worried about dementia and how she'd cope on her own when a couple of hundred miles away from us, her only young-ish close relatives, has done the necessary and given the PoA to me and my wife jointly. We're all hoping we never have to use it but at least it's there.

[Lat-Literal]

I will respond to the comments contributors have so kindly made but while I am on a roll I might as well lay it all down and get it out of my system.

Hopefully whether others agree or disagree it will be helpful to them in contemplating all the angles of their own situations and in mutual chat comments will be an education to us all:

4. My High Principles Regarding Fairness - and a Wish to Thank My Nan and Uncle, Both Dead, on my Mother's Side: This could be subtitled "My Father Could Actually Outlive my Mum and Me". Both sides of the family were pretty basic. There is no university education other than mine. Neither is at all poor now by virtue of generation, an ability to make money and on occasion inheritance. The three of us are probably more financially limited than the ex insurance sellers and the gas heating engineers. I don't hold that against them hugely. However, if there were the genuinely needy they would stand out. There's also offspring and offspring of offspring as is the usual way. Here there is not. Again I have in this muddle a clear vision and my parents don't know this bit. They assume that my finances, which are mainly in my property and distinct from theirs, are for me to decide what to do with including on my death. If it all goes to a charity like RNLI, that is, whatever is left of it, so be it as long as in the interim I am secure. Privately from them, I have assessed that I wouldn't be anywhere near where I am now had it not been for them. Consequently, I have assessed which components I haven't paid for myself. I am willing to contemplate leaving at least a percentage of the remainder to each side of the wider family 50-50 although in truth we have had little to do with each other as I think that would be a thank you to my parents for their support.

Then it comes to their finances. For all of the rows and the frustrations and the tearing out of hair and especially in regard to some aspect of my father's way with my mother, I was lucky. I have always been unusually close to my Dad. He is in his way close to me but in his own way and not so much. His wider family? It's ok - even fine - but it is so-so around the edges. His parents were not always wonderful to him and perhaps behind some of his and my limitations. As for my mother, we are even more unusually close, and I regarded her late mother and her late brother almost spiritually as gods. They are so pertinent to the positive sides of my flawed identity. Consequently, it is up to my parents to decide that if they are to leave any additional money it goes from my Dad to Mum first or my Mum to Dad first and then in theory it would go to me. But let us say that my Dad outlives my Mum and me which is far from being out of the question. If my father's brother had a shared POA with my Mum and me he could in theory siphon off the lot in his family's direction. I don't want this, even conceivably from the grave. I want it to be 50-50 for my Mum and her family and for what she and her late family did for me. Without a POA, that fair distribution is surely more likely.

5. Defining Specifics Rather Than Having a Belt-and-Braces Approach: I have asked for specific examples of where a POA would be hugely important both of my uncle and of a friend who with is brother has entered one. I am told that Martyn Lewis of Money Market is of the strong view that everyone should have one. I have been told that I might end up having to pay for my parents' bills and if I can't that it will all then become a nightmare. I have also been told that a lack of POA will mean that if there was a wish to sell their house that could with dementia be impossible. I have been deeply unnerved on these points and by my Dad's resistance. I have had to watch yet again as my mother gently indicates she might feels that one way is better knowing that my father vehemently disagrees while also, like him, seeking to avoid the issues and saying "isn't this all horrible" while rambling off on lighter, happy, topics. It does absolutely nothing for my anxiety condition or my longevity. I also question the "people out there", having experienced many at their professional worst. I'm not a pusher, nor am I a sheep. I have been left with considerable doubts. However, at the end of the day it was for my uncle to come up with a sufficient logic to support me in my concerns about my parents of which an element is intransigence. I don't think he succeeded although any observer might have thought that he and I in the way we spoke were closest. I sense while I have one foot in the current, I'm a chip off the old block. It might just be that we all, on balance, feel happier muddling our way through informally. Watever is meant is meant.

[Lat-Literal]

My sister and I had joint PoA for our mother for a few years around 15-20 years ago. We only sought it when our Ma knew she was struggling to manage her affairs and willingly agreed to it. Our family solicitor sorted it with no problem. As my sister lives abroad, I did most of the stuff, but it wasn't arduous, and we agreed about everything. The only snags occurred when our mother died and we, as executors, had to deal with banks, building societies, etc. Lloyds was DREADFUL, not accepting a certified copy of the death certificate, for instance, and being generally unhelpful and inefficient. But that's another issue.

Thank you for your comments, ardcarp, and, while difficult, I'm pleased it worked out reasonably well for you and your sister.

My own employment aside, the worst people I have ever had to deal formally with were Scottish Power, Talk Talk, Croydon Council (most recently)…...and Lloyds Bank!

Other people will no doubt have had, from their own perspectives, terrific experiences.

See Pet for a positive Lloyds experience - and good.

But I'm more than content to flag up the list of organisations I would never again touch with a barge pole.

[Lat-Literal]

Lat: I think Pet has hit on the crucial issues.The agreement of the person concerned does have to be obtained, and they do have to be still sufficiently 'with it' for the consent to be meaningful and so legally valid. So it needs sorting out well before the real need for it arises. Of course, as Pet says, you might still get by without it but it depends on the financial institution involved I'd guess.

My sister, 2 yrs older then me, still with it but rather worried about dementia and how she'd cope on her own when a couple of hundred miles away from us, her only young-ish close relatives, has done the necessary and given the PoA to me and my wife jointly. We're all hoping we never have to use it but at least it's there.

Many thanks for your contribution LMP which I appreciate. For better or worse, I think we might be trying to get by without it. I had to get my father out of his bed tonight just to make sure nothing had happened in the interim. The relatives went at about 10.30pm - I watched - so the call wasn't outlandish. No , it hadn't been pursued and my Mum and Dad were both happy with the way the day went. Back to Que Sera Que Sera. Others have it harder. Others have it easier. Can't help but find links with the way I became almost in all ways. This is us.

[Lat-Literal]

Looking at the details of your own father's condition I wonder if it might already be too late.

I have looked at this phrase again. Initially, I dismissed it or thought it was challengeable on my own assessment. Dad is not that far beyond reasonable understanding, if at all. But I think given it is borderline and I am describing it as challengeable, I am seeing that any change might be challengeable in a court. The will is self made. I think it has my old address on it. Both witnesses are dead. It always irritated me and indeed my mother that it wasn't done properly but the minus side is that if this were all to be revisited now with professionals, someone could unexpectedly claim that it was done when his condition was challengeable. Consequently, it isn't a guaranteed improvement - and at cost. That's just the will. The POA could throw a further spanner into the works at this stage. I'm tempted to leave things be. What will happen will happen. My Mum is his only wife. I am his only son. Naturally, it goes in that order, especially if he has tried to indicate in better times that is his wish as indeed it still is. I think he could have bought more into regularity but share his scepticism about 2018.

[oddoneout]

For various reasons this post got lost and so intervening contributions may duplicate the content. I'm too tired to read them all now so apologise if this is the case.


Such arrangements are always difficult to deal with, even when all the parties involved are of sound mind and agreed on the course of action. Contemplating a less than rosy future for oneself is not an activity that has much appeal.
My mother, a few years after she was widowed, looked at her circumstances, and decided to set up an enduring POA(as they then were called), set out a Living Will, make sure all her paperwork was in order and that we knew where it was. We three children had cause to be grateful for that foresight even if discussing it all was not easy. She developed a form of vascular dementia and died less than 2 years after the diagnosis, having become completely incapable of doing anything other than existing; she died less than 2 ears after the formal diagnosis. She had nominated me as attorney and I had gradually been helping her with her affairs(at her request; with hindsight that loss of interest in such matters was one of the first symptoms of the disease), especially finance, using the powers available before the POA was formally registered(ie before I took over all decisions on her behalf), so I had been able to sort out online banking and go through the formal ID checks for the various bodies involved(DWP, HMRC,GP, Social Services and the like) while she was still able to give her informed consent. We had no idea what was ahead and given the fact that we all lived at considerable distance from her it was fortunate that we had that grace period before it became apparent that something was very wrong, because once action had to be taken it all had to happen very quickly.
Even with all the official documents - certificated from the solicitor, with the embossed seal on the bottom, - I encountered considerable difficulties, largely due to ignorance and lack of any form of consistency between institutions such as banks when I took over fully as attorney. I gather things have improved somewhat in the 7 or so years since then, but it did bring home what problems we would have faced without it - selling her flat, sorting out investments, making the decision that a care home was necessary and then paying for it(she was self-funding so we had to make all the arrangements). I found it hard to do on a practical level as finances are not something I enjoy, the level of responsibility weighed on me, coupled with the emotional aspects of this happening because of my mother's heartbreaking medical circumstances, but it was so much better than the alternative. At least we her family were able to make the decisions for her, rather than having the Court of Protection do so on her behalf.
As I like her live alone, with children and siblings at some distance(different country in one case), I also realised that this was something I needed to face, however much I didn't want to. An accident which could have landed me in a wheelchair for the rest of my life provided the push(!) and I now have both the finance and welfare Lasting POAs in place.
Regarding the risk of an attorney doing the dirty with the money, to a certain extent that's a risk you have to face, and why the choice has to be made carefully, but other family members making sure they stay involved will help to reduce the risk, as does appointing more than one. If necessary one or both of my sisters could have taken over, and my children are 'jointly and severally' able to make decisions.
And yes, the person making the lasting POA must be mentally capable of making that decision - 'mentally competent'. A classic case of one of those things you do before you need it.....
Looking at what might happen without the relevant bits of paper may help with making a decision - dealing with the Court of Protection.

[johncorrigan]

Lat, we were fortunate to get power of attorney for my Dad just before he reached the stage before he could give permission - my younger brother handles this, and when the dementia finally killed my Dad, dealing with His affairs, which my Mum could not have handled, was very straightforward. My Brother has POA for my Mum, which I know she values, even more now that she is in her 90s.

Two or three years ago I spoke to a colleague of mine at work about this when she talked about the changing health situation of her Mother, a widow, and I suggested that she look at getting POA for her Mother. In my colleague's words, 'I never quite got round to it.'

Unfortunately her Mum's health position deteriorated very quickly and she was hospitalised. The hospital would not correspond directly with my colleague and started to make decisions without taking the family situation into consideration, because nobody was considered to be able to speak for her Mum. This was a time of great stress for my colleague, having to fight at all times to be heard. By this point it would have been impossible for the Mother to give any consent for POA.

Fortunately her Mother's condition started to improve as the NHS started to sort the problem. As soon as her mother was mentally back together, and released back to her house, my colleague arranged for POA, with the permission of her sibling, and her Mother, of course. This has meant that she can be a voice in any circumstance affecting her Mother, and she says has been a great relief in helping her Mother deal with old age, and helping my Colleague deal with her Mother's aging.

POA does not have to be used until required, but if you wait until after a parent is too poorly to give permission, it can make great difficulty in dealing with their affairs both in life and after death.

[oddoneout]

POA does not have to be used until required

This is an important point and can be a useful bargaining chip/reassurement where the donor(person making the POA) is reluctant. Matters do not pass to the control of the attorney until either the donor requests it(which may be on a partial/supportive basis as with my mother initially) or the situation is such that personal control is impossible. As part of setting up the POA there will be people(usually other family members) who are contacted, which gives an opportunity to raise concerns.
In my case it means that should I, for instance, have an accident and go into hospital my children can deal with my affairs if necessary until such time as I am able to do so again, and make decisions about my care if I am too unwell to do so. If I needed respite care, that could be taken from my own funds and not place a burden on them. The modern form seems more flexible in that respect; it is in effect live, but it is possible to move out of a 'full control by attorney' state if matters make that possible.

[Cockney Sparrow]

We retired a few years ago, and had input from a financial advisor. Planning, or at least acknowledging the future events to the end of life (bit uncomfortable, but necessary).
We were strongly advised to put in place powers of attorney forthwith - the advisor said he and most of his colleagues had them, as its not only the consequences of increasing age that make them valuable - accidents, illness etc, at any age. (Under the previous procedures I set one up for a relative, about 12 years ago - never had to be used, in the end; I have no excuse, really....)

I know how frustrating it is to battle against the bureaucracies of the state and financial institutions, even when I am the account holder or service user. I owe it to Mrs CS and my children to take that difficulty out of their path. Thanks for the contributions to this thread, a reminder - I must get on and put them in place. Soon.

[Lat-Literal]

Lat, we were fortunate to get power of attorney for my Dad just before he reached the stage before he could give permission - my younger brother handles this, and when the dementia finally killed my Dad, dealing with His affairs, which my Mum could not have handled, was very straightforward. My Brother has POA for my Mum, which I know she values, even more now that she is in her 90s.

Two or three years ago I spoke to a colleague of mine at work about this when she talked about the changing health situation of her Mother, a widow, and I suggested that she look at getting POA for her Mother. In my colleague's words, 'I never quite got round to it.'

Unfortunately her Mum's health position deteriorated very quickly and she was hospitalised. The hospital would not correspond directly with my colleague and started to make decisions without taking the family situation into consideration, because nobody was considered to be able to speak for her Mum. This was a time of great stress for my colleague, having to fight at all times to be heard. By this point it would have been impossible for the Mother to give any consent for POA.

Fortunately her Mother's condition started to improve as the NHS started to sort the problem. As soon as her mother was mentally back together, and released back to her house, my colleague arranged for POA, with the permission of her sibling, and her Mother, of course. This has meant that she can be a voice in any circumstance affecting her Mother, and she says has been a great relief in helping her Mother deal with old age, and helping my Colleague deal with her Mother's aging.

POA does not have to be used until required, but if you wait until after a parent is too poorly to give permission, it can make great difficulty in dealing with their affairs both in life and after death.

Thank you, JC, and to everyone else who has commented since last night.

Having been through all this yesterday and also read more on the internet, I feel very flattened by it all today and indeed bleak. I can't see me going to a concert for which I have a ticket tonight. I have experienced so many problems with difficult "authorities" in my life which 90% of the time were not of my making, I don't think I could stomach more of them on this matter. Ironically, a part of my father's thinking here is based on alternative ideas of what would keep the wolf from all our doors. Both my parents are soldiering on in their normal way but also displaying ostrich like tendencies. We all experienced yesterday from each that he/she had made up their mind that the other was going to live longer, hence a useful device for sidestepping it all, plus neither will get to grips with the fact that this in not about inheritance which they say is addressed via wills but us all for as long as they are alive.

I see that in Scotland the process is somewhat different which is to say that it appears professional inputs are required in the making of a POA. That route, while costly, supports my instinct of preferring a professional approach, should one be made at all and I sense that my Mum might, on balance, agree. That would take my father's brother out of the equation. For all of the unusual closeness between my Dad and him with my father often looking up to him even though he is by far the youngest, he has indicated quite strongly to me that he wants these affairs ringfenced to him, my Mum and me with even my involvement being only if necessary. What has especially freaked me out for want of a better phrase is learning how building societies etc can actually freeze assets should they feel a person has incoherence on their own financial affairs because of dementia and, worse, this could occur even with a joint marital account where the other spouse is coherent. I'm not sure if I can even bring myself to tell my Mum and Dad this is the case or that following a six month long process which would involve me and an appeal to a court the ruling would be that a professional stranger on whom nobody had any say would then take on the financial management of their affairs.

It also, though, makes me seriously question some of the processes which my uncle and I had been arguing would be sensible. For example, the payment of pension direct into an account and the setting up of direct debits for payment of bills. That would lock such processes into such a freeze so perhaps here my parents have inadvertently got it right. This is not to say that the one credit card they have would necessarily be usable or that cash from a pension could be walked in to the Post Office etc for the payment of all bills even if it might address most payments. Certainly, it would raise questions on their ability to access money for essential payments like boiler maintenance, domestic repairs etc. I would not have the money to sustain them for a lengthy period should it all go awry. On the other hand, if push really came to shove, I suppose they would have to move next door into my place and rent out their own property with a requirement that they are paid for that in cash but it all seems somewhat unreal. Among the things I am minded to suggest is that we test my Dad's belief that I could collect his pension on his behalf and that they keep a substantial amount of whatever savings they do have in my Mum's separate account. But that in the longer term would only help to address a situation in which she outlived my father. If it were the reverse, that money would just go back into what is their joint account. It would be back to square one.

[vinteuil]

.

Lat - I am sorry to hear that these things are getting to you in such a way.

When I got married some years back we wrote new Wills, and at the same time our solicitor advised us to have the financial LPA. (After discussion with us both he was less concerned about the health/welfare LPA.) The solicitor did all the work, it was not difficult for us - in fact it was painless - and it didn't cost us that much.

I was keen to have the LPA sorted; my brother and myself had previously arranged for an LPA for my mother just in time before she lost her marbles, and it made all the necessary financial transactions of her last couple of years much easier and less stressful than it wd otherwise have been. And on the other hand I have friends who didn't sort out LPAs for their failing parents in time - as a result having to deal with the Court of Protection instead, which was a real trial at an awful time.

.