Before October 2007 if you wanted to appoint someone to manage your financial affairs you put in place an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA). An attorney appointed under an EPA could only manage your finances and they had no authority to deal with health and welfare matters.
Since October 2007 if you want to appoint someone to manage your finances or to ensure that you are looked after if you lose capacity then you have had to put in place Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPA). There are two separate LPAs you can draw up, one for Property and Financial Affairs and the other for Health and Welfare matters. Whilst an EPA and a Lasting Power of Attorney for Property and Affairs would appear to work in similar ways there are two major differences that need to be considered. Registration Once an EPA was signed by all parties to it, it could be used straightaway without being registered. As the donor you could state that your attorneys could only act if you lost capacity. In any event the EPA only ever needed to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian if the donor lost capacity. If the attorneys need to register it then they’ll need to make sure that they follow the correct procedure including notifying family members of the application. An LPA whether for Property and Financial Affairs or for Health and Welfare must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used by the attorneys. Replacement Attorneys Under an Enduring Power of Attorney you could appoint one, two or more attorneys but if your attorneys died or were unable to act for you then it simply came to an end. An LPA works in a similar way but you can also say who should act if your first choice is unable to do so. Do I need to make an LPA for Property and Financial Affairs to replace my EPA? Your EPA remains a legal document and there is no requirement for you to make an LPA to replace it. However, if the attorneys you chose to appoint under the EPA would no longer be the people that you would choose to look after you or your affairs or you would like the added security of having replacement attorneys then it would be wise to look at putting LPAs in place for both Property and Financial Affairs and Health and Welfare. What is an LPA for Health and Welfare and do I need one? An LPA for Health and Welfare allows your chosen attorneys to talk to everyone involved in your care and to make decisions about where you live, how you are cared for and what medical treatment you receive if you can’t do this yourself. Here at Vine Law we think everyone should ensure that both they and their finances can be looked after so our answer would always be yes and we would recommend that you seek legal advice to ensure that they are set up correctly. If you’d like more information about EPA registration or the making or use of LPAs please contact Cath Collins on 01945 898090 or email her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
