Nowadays, many of us are living for longer. While this is a positive, it means the chances of being diagnosed with dementia later in life is significantly higher.
As dementia means our ability to make decisions reduces significantly, to the point that it becomes impossible, it can have serious implications for our financial welfare. The inability to make decisions about your wealth or understand the assets that you own, could jeopardise your financial security over the long term.
It’s also worth remembering that the loss of mental capacity isn’t always due to old age and dementia. If you’re diagnosed with a serious illness or suffer an accident, you could lose the ability to make decisions on a temporary or permanent bases.
For this reason, creating a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) should always be a priority. This is especially true when you consider a common mistake that catches many Britons out every year: if you don’t have an LPA when you need one, it’s typically too late.
To create an LPA, you must have mental capacity. If something unexpected happens and you lose that capacity, you won’t be able to create an LPA ‘retrospectively’. If you lose capacity and do not have an LPA, your loved ones may need to apply to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship Order.
This means that someone, usually a member of your family, makes an application to the court to be appointed as their deputy to manage your affairs on your behalf. While this may sound like a good outcome, it’s worth remembering that as court decides who will look after your affairs, it may not be someone you would choose.
The application process is very long and quite costly and requires a medical assessment to be carried out to ensure that you are unable to make your own decisions. Certain people must also be notified. Once the order has been granted, the deputy is required to keep accounts which must be submitted to the Court of Protection annually.
By creating an LPA, you decide who will make decisions on your behalf if needed, so that you can be assured it’s someone you can trust and creating and using the LPA will be far easier for your loved ones than using the deputyship order.
Through AFH, you will have access to a solicitor who is qualified and has a minimum of 10 years’ experience in this area of law. Furthermore, you’ll be dealing with a professional who will explain the deputyship order application in an understanding, friendly and straightforward way.
We’ll take the heavy lifting out of the application process while you relax in the knowledge that the deputyship order is being created in a diligent and timely way. For example, we’ll notify those who really need to be notified, and help you to arrange the necessary medical assessments that form part of the application process.
If you are considering making an application to the Court of Protection, we have put together some information that we hope you’ll find helpful.