Estate Planning & Tax

Powers of attorney and mental capacity issues

We can prepare a variety of powers of attorney to enable you to appoint somebody else to deal with your affairs.  A power of attorney can be drawn so as to authorise your attorney to act on your behalf either in specific tasks or generally.  A lasting power of attorney is one that authorises your attorney to act on your behalf even if you have lost the mental capacity for decision-making.

Where a person loses their mental capacity without having granted a lasting power of attorney (or an old style enduring power of attorney), a person known as a Deputy will need to be appointed by the Court of Protection to deal with that person’s affairs under the Court’s direction.  We can prepare the documents required to make the necessary application to the Court.

Our specialists in these areas are Michael Rapps, Clare Hopkins and Andrew Wareham.