Power of Attorney to do or not to do?

No question! Do it.

Although it's no longer cheap it's worth doing for peace of mind. You may never need it (I'm assuming you have a Will) but it can make things easier for yourselves if something unpleasant happens and make it much easier for your dependents.

It's even easier if you definitely have someone (or more) that you can trust. I'd be inclined to have two people. Apart from the fact that they would then be monitoring the situation from different aspects it solves the problem if one of them becomes not capable themselves.

Naturally, it's best to give the power to younger people.

We did ours (wasn't LPA in those days, but EPA) some years back and have two people - a niece from my family and a niece from Mrs Shiney's family. They were younger in those days and one of them is already in her 50's. That's why it's best to pick someone younger as you should expect to still keep going strong in twenty years time.

 

It's not just when they are incapable, either. After my father died my mother still had all her marbles but didn't feel up to coping with the household admin (paying bills, dealing with the bank, the council etc.). So I was able to take over without any problems.

The bank, quite rightly, wanted their own copy of the EPA but I was able to handle everything after that.

My mother eventually went into a residential home (still with all her marbles but not physically able to cope at home because of arthritis) and I dealt with that. When she got cancer, seven years later, and was on drugs and becoming not quite with it I was able to make all the medical decisions. I made the decision for the doctors not to tell her as it was incurable and she was, then, not remembering things. I thought there was no point in frightening her with the diagnosis because a day or so later she would be asking what was wrong with her and being frightened again.

The home needed to know how to deal with the matter and what to say to her and I had to fight with the medical profession to stop them from telling her. After all that was settled the owner of the home said that I had made the right decision as they had seen the situation many times before. She said that she wasn't allowed to try and influence my decision.

The story my mother was told is that she had a bad ulcer (cancer of the tongue) and that was what they were treating. She was in pain (morphine was used) but would have been in pain whether she knew or not. At least she thought she would get better and it, mercifully, only took four months.

 

I guess that depends on the person

Well, if that should happenm and is against the wishes of the Donor, you can add a clause within the form to instruct that the appointed person can not take those powers unless it is proved in Court that the Donor is mentally not capable.
It's usually problem free, unless there is a large estate or sum of monies involved, but families are families and people are people so nothing is guaranteed. But with small estates that have such problems you will find the problems/objections will disappear at the mention of Court action.

 

That's a standard part of power of attorney. It only comes into power if the person who has made the POA has told them they can use it or if the person becomes incapable. They can't invoke the POA by themselves.

That's just an added protection.

Don't think they have EPA's any more.

Yes, you do need to choose the right people. The niece on my side of the family is a qualified teacher, a highly qualified HR executive, an executive administrator and, when she was a kid, decided I was the best village idiot she had ever met.

The one on Mrs Shiney's side is a highly qualified corporate lawyer.

I don't think that either one of them would let the other get away with anything!

 

If you make it to your 200th I'll pop over and visit you.