Wills and Powers of Attorney for Carers – some useful advice

If you care for somebody, no matter how old or young they are, you should think about what will happen if you become unable to care anymore, either because you are too ill or because you die.

Here are some ideas.

If you are ill, or have an accident, you may not be able to care for your loved one as well as you have been. You should consider two things:

You may be using a Lasting Power of Attorney to give you the authority to help them with their finances or their health and welfare. If you are not, you should seriously consider doing so, as it protects them and you and gives you all the authority that you need to deal with the various organisations such as banks and building societies or medical or care professionals.

If there is a Lasting Power of Attorney in place, does it appoint someone else to act if you become unable to do so? Ideally it should but if it does not, it would be worthwhile seeing if the person you are caring for could make another Lasting Power of Attorney appointing a replacement.

And what about your own finances? You may be using your money or property for the benefit of the person you are caring for? In that case, you should consider making a Lasting Power of Attorney yourself, to appoint someone to continue doing the same, not only for your benefit but also for the benefit of the person you are caring for.

If you die, you may want the person you are caring for to inherit something or for part of your estate to be used for their benefit.

In that case, you should make a Will and you should take advice as to the best way to make it, so that it is most effective in achieving what you want to achieve.

There is no point leaving something to someone who does not have enough mental capacity to manage their own finances; it will only cause them more problems.

Also, there is no point leaving something to someone who will lose their state benefits as a result and be no better off (and, in fact, will probably be worse off).

This does not mean that you should leave them out though. You can still include them in your Will but you should take proper advice from a solicitor with experience in these areas, so that your loved one can get the best benefit from what you want to leave to them. The solicitor can advise about trusts, the best people to have as trustees (who are going to be using your money in the best way for your beneficiary) and the different ways that your money can be left so that it provides things for your beneficiary over and above what they receive automatically from the state.

There are lots of things you can do to put the right arrangements in place for your loved ones. The key is in planning in advance, taking the right advice and keeping it all up to date.

Chris Milne

Member of the Society of Trust & Estate Practitioners, Solicitors For the Elderly and Mencap’s panel of specialist advisors

Onions & Davies Solicitors

Office in Shropshire, home in Stourbridge, working for you in Worcestershire, Shropshire, Birmingham and the Black Country