New Year Resolution: consider Lasting Powers of Attorney
14th Feb 2008
Many people had not even heard of powers of attorney until they became the theme of a powerful storyline featuring the character Mike Baldwin in Coronation Street. The family squabbles depicted may have been fictitious but they will have been all too real for thousands of people throughout the country.
The Baldwin character was suffering from a debilitating mental illness which meant he could no longer properly control his business affairs.
Such situations can be avoided in real life if you appoint someone now to act as your attorney should failing health ever prevent you being able to make decisions for yourself. The law has just been modified to improve the system with the introduction of Lasting Powers of Attorney. They allow you give someone authority to run your business affairs if the need arises and also to make decisions on your behalf about what medical treatment you should receive. This can even extend to deciding whether or not a life-support machine should be switched off.
There are safeguards to prevent the system being abused so you can prepare for the possibility of ill health secure in the knowledge that you can leave important decisions in the hands of someone you trust. If you don’t have such arrangements in place then your family may have to go through complicated and time-consuming legal processes just to get the authority to help run your affairs for you. That is the last thing they want at a time when they will already be worried about you and your failing health.