The Clients Challenge
The client was a gentleman in his 60s who called on behalf of his father who was finding it increasingly difficult to cope with the basic demands of life such as dealing with his money and paying bills. The client wanted to get Lasting Powers of Attorney in place so that he was able to help when his father needed it, thus protecting his father’s money and wellbeing.
The TM Law Solution
TM Law indicated that we could help, but emphasised that, as the man’s father would be the client (or the donor in a Lasting Power of Attorney), we had to be certain that he had full mental capacity to sign the document and agree to making his son the attorney. After a long silence, the son indicated that it would depend upon whether we met him on a good day or not! Further inquiry made it abundantly clear that his father did not really have the full mental capacity needed. TM Law’s advice was that the son sought a doctor’s opinion before we took things any further.
Unfortunately, a subsequent conversation with the son established that, in the doctor’s opinion, TM Law could not effectively work with his father to take adequate instructions for either of the Lasting Powers of Attorney; we could not put this in place without his father having the capacity to understand what he was doing.
The son asked what could be done in these circumstances. TM Law was able to advise him that an application to the Court of Protection would achieve a similar result. Although the process is longer and potentially more expensive than drawing up Lasting Powers of Attorney, the father’s business and financial affairs could still be protected, thus achieving the son’s original aim .
