What is power of attorney

Lasting power of attorney

If you have been diagnosed with dementia and are still able to make your own decisions it may be advisable to set up a lasting power of attorney, to deal with your property and financial affairs. No one can say what will happen and there are many treatments and lifestyle changes that you can make to help reduce the onset of the later stages of dementia. However, by getting your affairs in order, you can make arrangements while you are determined to have mental capacity and can legally sign these responsibilities over to someone else. 

What is it?

A lasting power of attorney is a legal right for someone to act in your best interests, or on your behalf and make decisions over your property and finances should you become unable to make such decisions. 

Why is this important? 

To be mentally capable, you need to be able to understand and remember information to be able to make decisions about your life. Someone cannot just make a judgement that you are not capable of making decisions because you have made a mistake with something. It will need to be evidenced with certification from a doctor if they find that you are no longer able to make those decisions for yourself. You want to have a power of attorney in place, if you get to this point, to ensure that you already have a power of attorney lined up who will be able to take over those decisions for you.

How do I do it? 

You can assign a lasting power of attorney through a solicitor. They will arrange for the necessary documents to be drawn up that you and your selected power of attorney will sign. This is a legally binding document and needs to be registered at the Office of the Public Guardian https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/office-of-the-public-guardian, for it to be used in the future. 

Once it is in place, that is it, you don’t need to think about it. For more information on what financial benefits you might be eligible to claim are available in our articles here: