On September 4th, Chris Chippendale talked to us about ‘Lasting Powers of Attorney’.

LPAs aim to assist people in the situations where loved ones may at some stage lose mental capacity to make everyday decisions. By completing LPAs, agreed attorneys can represent the subject in terms of their Property and Affairs, and their Health and Welfare.

Chris illustrated his talk with case studies where, without LPAs, joint bank accounts and even Pay TV accounts in the subject’s name were difficult or impossible to access. In situations where a subject requires residential care, without an LPA the responsibility for where they live and what care or medical treatment is provided is taken by a social care agency, potentially ignoring the wishes of relatives.

With the subject matter being very real to many members, there were many questions. A number of us went back home to search our filing systems to establish our own status wrt LPAs.