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1. You are not fully aware of the consequences for yourself and your family.
If you lost your mental capacity to make decisions for yourself (due to having a stroke, getting dementia, being in a serious accident, having a head injury, terminal illness) then your bank account would be frozen, so no one could access your money, handle your finances, top up your phone credit, sell your house etc.
Neither would they be able to support you in where and how you are cared for and in making of life-sustaining and end-of-life care decisions.
Not your partner, your children over 18, your siblings or friends.
Not unless you have made them your Attorneys. In the eyes of the law, next of kin is a myth. These decisions would be taken out of their hands and made by healthcare professionals and the government.
Once mental capacity is lost then the only way for your loved ones to have this legal authority to be able to support you is to apply to the Court of Protection.
This is a long and expensive process to follow with the Court of Protection where your family would have to apply to be your Attorneys.
I have known people to pay £6,000 for this and even then the nightmare continues with having to check every decision they make with the Court of Protection
2. You don't think it applies to you
You may be fit and healthy now, but life as we well know is unpredictable and can change in a blink of an eye.
A sudden diagnosis or change in your health, we’ve all seen it happen to others we know and love, leaving you with not having the energy or capacity to face doing paperwork.
The waiting time is currently 4-5 months to get the Power of Attorney registered. (since covid, the waiting time has tripled with everyone applying for their power of attorneys!) and in these circumstances, time is of the essence.
I have even met young people in their thirties languishing in Residential Homes with brain damage who were involved in car accidents and have no quality of life, and had no Power of Attorney in place. If you are over 18 then you can get a power of attorney put in place.
3. You don't know whom to ask to be your attorney
You may be putting it off because you don’t know whom to ask to act as your Attorney (representative) You may not have a partner or children or close friends to ask, so don’t even get started on making a Power of Attorney.
You are not alone in this, and please know that there are always solutions to be found here.
4. The size and legal wording of the forms are off-putting (and confusing)
You may have spent your life not having much need or generally avoiding anything to do with the world and language of legalese, and here in the world of lasting power of attorneys there is plenty of this!
With terminology used such as Attorneys, (not a lawyer) Donor, it can be confusing, especially page after page of it.
When you get the forms you realise there are 24 pages in total.
I know of people who have put them in the backs of wardrobes never to look at them again after receiving them in the post to fill in.
5. Procrastination
Procrastination as they say “is the thief of time”.
You think you have all the time in the world or you’ll do it tomorrow, or after a certain event or date, and yet the days and months roll by and you still haven’t quite got round to it.
And timing is absolutely key in the case of applying for a power of attorney, because once your mental capacity to make decisions has gone, it’s a whole new (and very expensive) ball game.
Which of the above applies to you?
If you want to resolve any of the above in order to move ahead with making your lasting power of attorney then, book yourself in for a chat to see if I can help.
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