Planning for Incapacity

Could this be your story?

Your house is in joint names of yourself and your spouse. You go into a nursing home and lack capacity to sign the conveyance when your spouse wants to sell and move to be close to the children. Without a financial Lasting Power of Attorney appointing an attorney to make financial decisions for you, an application to the Court of Protection will have to be made. This could takes many months, involve a Court application fee of £400 the filling in of numerous forms and possibly solicitors costs as well.

There are two kinds of Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA)
The financial LPA has replaced the old Enduring Power of Attorney. It enables you to appoint someone else (or more than one person) to make your financial decisions if you lose capacity to do so for yourself.
The personal welfare LPA is brand new and allows you to appoint someone else (or more than one person) to make decisions about your health and welfare such as where you are to live, your medical treatment or other welfare decisions.
Your next of kin has no power in law to make your decisions for you. If you do not plan ahead it could be a stranger like a social worker or doctor who decides for you. You may come from a family where you would certainly not want your next of kin to make your decisions anyway!
If decisions have to be made which require some legal formality, your loved one might have to go through the stress and expense of applying to the Court of Protection. This can be avoided by a LPA
 A bit of prudent forward planning can avoid this.

Are you looking forward to going into a nursing home? I doubt it but who does? You could choose who you would trust to make the decision for you. They could even refuse to agree and insist that care be provided for you at home.
The service that Peter Edwards Law offers you involves you having a stake in the planning of that service. Once you have lost capacity it is too late.

An important part of planning ahead is to review what you have decided on a regular basis to be agreed. Family relationships change as do our views on fundamental decisions.