Acting as Attorney
A Power of Attorney is a document that you can make appointing someone to act on your behalf in the event of you either becoming ill and not being able to look after your own affairs or if you simply no longer wish to manage your affairs yourself.
You can appoint up to two people to act as your Attorneys, who can either be permitted to act on their own or jointly. An Attorney can do everything that you, yourself, can do, i.e. operate your bank/building society accounts and even sell your property. Your Attorney should, therefore, be someone who you trust implicitly to act in your best interests.
A Power of Attorney is a document for use during your lifetime only. To make a Power of Attorney you must have full mental capacity i.e. know what it is that you are doing and for this reason it should be done whilst you are still fit and able to do this. You can make a Power of Attorney without it being used immediately and in this event, we simply file the document away to hold on your behalf until such time as you wish to invoke the power.
A Power of Attorney can be revoked at any time by the person who made it and a new one made to replace it.
Once you have made an Enduring Power of Attorney it can continue to be operational even if you become mentally incapable. In this event, your Attorneys would be under a duty to register the document at the Public Trust Office, but can continue acting under the power so long as no objections to their doing so are received at the PTO at the time of registration. It is, therefore, a very useful document as it stops the necessity for the Court of Protection to become involved in your affairs.
