Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs)

These allow a person to delegate power to someone else to make decisions for them if in future they can’t make their own decisions.  LPA’s can be made in relation to your Property and Finances and Health and Welfare decisions. The person you are caring for may need to make an LPA in case they have an accident or become confused and are no longer legally able to deal with their own affairs.

Deputyship

When you are caring for someone who is not able to look after all their needs themselves, you often need to know about the legal side of things and find out how you can help to sort out all the things that need dealing with.  We are used to assisting carers in resolving legal issues, and below are a few of the many things we can do to help.

If the person you care for has become mentally incapable of making an LPA but their finances or property need dealing with then someone will have to apply to the Court to be made their Deputy.  The process takes months, and can be very expensive. It is therefore much better that they make an LPA and then they can decide who they trust to deal with their affairs.

Wills

When a family member becomes a carer perhaps for elderly parents, sometimes the whole family agrees that the carer should have a larger part of the property of the parents once they die. Alternatively, the rest of the family may be suspicious and think the carer might have an ulterior motive.  To avoid a dispute, it’s important that the parents make the sort of will which they want, and where they try to be fair to everyone.  

Often we act for carers who are parents of an adult child who might be unable to look after themselves or their finances.In that case, often what the parents need is a trust for their child in their wills. Once both parents have died, the trust  can provide financial help or even a roof over the child’s head without giving the child the responsibility of managing things themselves, and without affecting any means tested benefits they receive.

We pride ourselves on offering caring and practical advice.
Contact Simon Stevenson (Full Accredited Member of Solicitors for the Elderly) for advice for carers.

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A lot of people are unsure as to whether they or the State should be paying their care fees.

Fees can be funded by the Local Authority or by the National Health Service (NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding) depending upon the situation. The law and regulations surrounding care home funding are very complex and our Plymouth specialist lawyers are able to help guide you through these. We are also able to visit you at your own home/care home if that's easier for you.

Our clients are also often worried about whether they will have to sell their home if they go into care and want to know if they can give their house to their children. We can give you full advice about the pros and cons of giving away your home to your family, and about the interaction between these rules and inheritance tax law. There are various laws which are aimed at stopping people giving away their assets with the intention of getting help in future with their care home fees (Deprivation of Assets), and we can advise you about this.

Often people do not realise that there are certain non means tested benefits that they would be entitled to if they went into care and we can also advise on those.

We are able, amongst other matter, to advise  you upon the preparation of wills to assist you in protecting your home and other assets for future generations.

If you would like us to help guide you though the minefield of laws and regulations regarding care home fees, NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, and gifting your home or other assets then please call us on 01752 665037- we are here to help ease your worries and concerns.

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Sometimes it happens that a person has an accident or becomes unable to manage their affairs through illness or confusion in old age, but they have not made a Lasting Power of Attorney to enable someone close to them to look after their affairs. In that case a Deputyship application has to be made to the Court of Protection which has the power to appoint a Deputy who will have the legal authority to deal with that person’s affairs.

Normally the appointment is for a Property and Affairs Deputy, but it is possible in limited circumstances for the Court to appoint a Personal Welfare Deputy who can make personal decisions about such matters as medical treatment.

A Property and Affairs Deputy will have to look after the affairs of the person who cannot look after their own affairs – consulting them on any decisions to be made and acting always in their best interests under the principles set out in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Court applies different levels of supervision to the Deputy depending on all the circumstances, but the Deputy will have to answer to the Court for how they deal with finances of the one who cannot act for themselves.

We are experienced in dealing with this type of matter, and there are also various situations in which an application has to be made to the Court of Protection where a person is not fully capable of making decisions for themselves.

Sometimes there is one particular decision that needs to be made for a person who is mentally incapable, and the Court can be asked just to make that decision but not to appoint somebody generally to look after that person’s affairs.

In certain circumstances the Court can also make what is known as a Statutory Will for a person who does not have a Will and is not capable of making their own Will.

Applications to the Court of Protection are complicated and lengthy, and we can make the process as easy and painless as possible for you.

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An Advance Decision is concerned with medical treatment only, and takes effect during their lifetime. Any wishes you have about how your property is dealt with after your death or about your funeral should go in your Will and not in an Advance Decision.

In England, doctors have to take into account the wishes of an adult patient who is conscious and is mentally capable. However sometimes people are worried about decisions that might be taken while they are unconscious or not capable of making a decision.

An Advance Decision tells the doctors what you want to happen in certain circumstances if you are not capable yourself of telling them. In the document you can say what you want or do not want in those circumstances if you are receiving medical treatment. Although people often make Advance Decisions when they are well and healthy, these documents usually envisage the situation where a person might have a terminal illness and deals with such matters as particular types of medical treatments they may or may not want to have and whether there is a particular person that they would like consulted about their treatment.

Sometimes this can overlap with a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney – see our page about Lasting Powers of Attorney.

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