Storing & Using A Lasting Power Of Attorney

Timms, Sara Hilliard, discusses storing and using a Lasting Power Of Attorney in her latest blog….

The decision whether to store clients’ original Lasting Powers of Attorney (‘LPAs’) is one that is often debated amongst private client lawyers.

Here at Timms, we made the decision, some years ago, to release the original LPAs to the client for their own safe keeping, once they had been prepared and registered.

This decision was based on the following factors:

• The LPA, be it a Health and Welfare LPA or a Property and Finance LPA, may be required urgently at weekends or during a period when our offices are shut.
• Once the LPAs have been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, official copies can always be obtained directly from the Office of the Public Guardian, if the originals were lost.
• We can only release an LPA to the Attorney(s) with the donor’s permission. The donor is the person who has made the LPA. If the donor lacks mental capacity and is unable to grant permission then we require medical evidence to prove that the donor is no longer able to make decisions before we release an LPA to the Attorney(s). This can often take time which can be problematic if the LPAs are urgently needed.

We always advise our client donors that they are able to make their own certified copies and explain to them how they can achieve this.

If an attorney finds themselves acting for the donor under a Lasting Power of Attorney, they will have to register the original or a certified copy with various financial institutions.

Unfortunately, the COVID lockdowns have made attending banks more difficult and the postal system sometimes a little slow. This has often caused problems for Attorneys try to assist the donor.

A useful service, however, was launched by the Office of the Public Guardian in July last year, which enables users to share details of their LPA with organisations such as banks, building societies etc. This service has proven to be extremely successful and has saved many Attorneys time and hassle by reducing the need to post out an LPA for validating with an organisation. Details regarding the service can be found here Use a lasting power of attorney – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

When the service was initially launched, only Attorneys under LPAs registered on or before 17 July 2020 were eligible to use the online tool. However, the Office of the Public Guardian are now able to open the service up to older LPAs registered between 1 September 2019 and 26 July 2020 and this was implemented from Thursday 25 February 2021.

If you require advice regarding Lasting Powers of Attorney, please contact me, Sara Hilliard, on 01332 364436 or at s.hilliard@timms-law.com.

Sara Hilliard
March 2021