The Court of Protection recently had to decide whether a pregnant woman had capacity to decide whether or not to undergo a planned Caesarean section and, if she did not, whether the procedure was in her best interests. The 37-year-old woman had been...
The provisions of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 will come into effect, and it will no longer be possible to make Enduring Powers of Attorney; their place will be taken by the new Lasting Powers of Attorney.
The New Law
Lasting Powers of Attorney will have a number of new features and are intended to improve matters for people who are unable to make decisions for themselves. There will be a new Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney which will for the first time allow people to appoint someone else to make decisions relating to health and welfare matters as well as financial matters. However, Lasting Powers of Attorney will have negative sides as well as the positive ones.
They will be more complex documents than Enduring Powers of Attorney, expected to be at least 25 pages long, and they must be registered with the Public Guardian, a new body to replace the Public Guardianship Office, before they can be used. This means that it will take longer to produce one, and it is expected that they will cost significantly more than an Enduring Power of Attorney to produce.
In addition, anyone who has ever tried to register an Enduring Power of Attorney with a bank will appreciate that it is bound to take banks, building societies and other financial institutions time to work out how to deal with the new law, set up their procedures and train their staff.
What should I do?
If you have been thinking about creating a Power of Attorney, don’t delay. An Enduring Power of Attorney made now will remain perfectly valid and effective after 1st October, but in less than five months time you will no longer be able to make an Enduring Power of Attorney.
Contact Andrew Robertson for further information.
