The current pandemic and Covid 19 crisis has heightened everybody’s attention to looking after their personal affairs, and the problems that can be accounted when they are left unattended, and disaster strikes.
We are constantly being reminded of cases where diseases such as dementia or Alzheimer’s has set in, but the persons who is suffering from this at an early stage, nor indeed the family have taken it upon themselves to organise the financial and also health affairs.
Here in Britain, we appear to have an attitude for some reason, it is not appropriate for the family to intermeddle with a persons affairs, but when the spectre of dementia or other mental issues appears, in our experience it is paramount that the family should act, and act in some urgency.
In England and Wales there are two types of Powers of Attorney, one is for financial decisions and one is for heath and care matters.
It is our policy when instructed to advise that you should have both powers of attorney set up at the same time, although there is no legal requirement for you to do so.
In our experience however, some families adopt the approach that they will apply for the financial decisions attorney, and deal with heath and care at a later date. However, matters creep up, and often one finds that is too late to apply for the care and welfare Power of Attorney, although the Power of Attorney for financial affairs, which includes property, is in place.
In such circumstances where a person has lost mental capacity you cannot enter into a Powers of Attorney, but you have to make an application to the Court of Protection to apply for a Deputyship Order, which is not only time consuming but expensive, and if the care authorities are involved, often they may object to the order being made.
If you are setting up both types, you will need to submit a separate application for each.
In Scotland you can choose from a third Power of Attorney option, which is a combination of the two.
We will be adding various articles to our website over the next weeks and months, to keep people up to date on what is required.
If you require help in connection with any of these matters, please do not hesitate to contact us.