A power of attorney is a way of giving someone else legal authority to deal with your affairs.

When we advise clients on their estate planning, Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are particularly useful. An important feature of an LPA is that you can delegate authority to your chosen attorney and that authority remains in force, even if you subsequently lose mental capacity yourself. This can extend to financial matters or to health and welfare decisions (or both) and an LPA can be of great benefit for clients who later suffer major physical or mental illness, to the extent that they are unable to manage their own affairs.