How to set up a power of attorney

7 step process for setting up your power of attorney

The process to set up a lasting power of attorney for Financial and Property affairs and/or lasting power of attorney for Health and well being is the following:

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1. ‍Download the forms from the government website and view the guide.
2. ‍Read through and decide whether you will need advice to fill this out. (a list of further resources are below)‍
3. Make decisions: Choose your power of attorneys. Choose whether they need to act together or separately, if together which can be more assuring, make sure they both will work well together. Get consent from these people, being a power of attorney can be time-consuming and is a large responsibility, so you need to ensure people are prepared for this. ‍
4. Fill in the forms - you can do this process online with the government website or you can go to a solicitor or you can do this in conjunction with your will. ‍
5. Register the forms - The document needs to be registered with the government; The office of Public Guardian and there is a cost of £82 to do this. Your solicitor can do this for you or you can do this yourself. It can take up to 9 weeks (during the pandemic this increased to 20 weeks)‍
6. Make sure it is accessible  - If the POA was before 2019 your attorneys will have had to sign the forms and they will need a copy stamped by the Office of Public Guardian, to be able to act on your behalf. The original document may also be needed, make sure you have told loved ones where this is and even more importantly what your wishes are, especially for your health and welfare power of attorney.
   OR if you created on or after 17 July 2020 then you can administer the power of attorney online, you will be given a code which corporations should accept. Add to you digital store if you have one. ‍
7. Activating a power of attorney - If you have a financial power of attorney you do not need to activate it, however if you have a health and well being power of attorney you will need to prove that the person you are acting on behalf of does not have the mental capacity to act for themselves.