Managing Your Financial Affairs & Making Decisions Regarding Your Health & Welfare During The Coronavirus Pandemic

Due to the coronavirus pandemic, many people are wondering what measures they can put in place to manage their financial affairs and health and medical treatment, should they require someone else to make these choices for them.

There are various steps that can be taken and it is important to put in place these arrangements now whilst you are shielding, self-isolating or in lockdown to ensure that:

• The people you would choose to manage your financial affairs for you, should you find it difficult or become unable to manage these yourself, are legally able to deal with these; and
• Your wishes concerning, particularly, your future medical treatment are specified and/or the people you would choose to make health decisions for you, if you were not able to make these for yourself, have the legal power to do that.

Managing your financial affairs and property

There are different types of documents you can use to enable someone you trust, such as a close friend or family member, to help you manage your financial affairs and property. These could include putting in place one or more of the following:

• A third party mandate arrangement with your bank or building society so that the person you choose can carry out bank transactions on your behalf.
• A General Power of Attorney authorising the person or people you specify to act on your behalf. The document can allow the attorney to do certain things (e.g. to sell your property) or deal with certain assets (e.g. to pay monies into and draw monies out of your bank account) or can state that the attorney can deal with all your financial affairs on your behalf. The advantage of this type of Power of Attorney is that it can be used as soon as it is made. However, it cannot be used by the attorney if the person who has made it loses mental capacity.
• A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for your Property and Financial Affairs is a legally binding document authorising the person or people you name in it to act on your behalf. This document could either allow the attorney to do certain things or deal with certain assets but would usually enable the attorney to deal with all your financial affairs on your behalf. The LPA would specify when it is to come into effect but that would usually be either if you ask your attorney to act for you or if you had lost mental capacity. An LPA must be registered with the Court of Protection before it can be used and this is usually done immediately after it is made, so that it is immediately available in the future, if needed. As the LPA can be used even if you lose mental capacity in the future, we would recommend that you put this in place now. For more information on Property and Finance LPAs, please click here.

Making decisions about your health, welfare and medical treatment

If you are able to make decisions about your own health and welfare then you must make those decisions for yourself.

If, however, you lose capacity to decide for yourself then it is very helpful to have already put in place documentation which sets out your wishes and/or appoints someone to make those decisions on your behalf. This could include putting in place one or more of the following:

• An Advance Directive, also known as a Living Will, which sets out your instructions regarding medical treatment in certain circumstances. For example, this will commonly say that if you are so poorly that there is no reasonable prospect of recovery then you only wish to receive medical treatment to keep you comfortable and nothing more. This is a legally binding document.
• An Advance Statement or Care Plan which sets out your preferences, wishes, beliefs and values regarding future medical care. The Statement or Plan is useful to provide information to medical staff if you were not able to communicate this to them and would assist them in making decisions regarding your medical treatment on your behalf. These are not legally binding documents.
• A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) for your Health and Welfare is a legally binding document authorising the person or people you name to make these decisions on your behalf. The document would enable your attorney to make decisions about your health and welfare, including your medical treatment if you were unable to make these for yourself. It would also specify whether you wanted your attorney to be able to make decisions as to whether or not you should receive life sustaining treatment. An LPA must be registered with the Court of Protection before it can be used and this is usually done immediately after it is made, so that it is immediately available in the future, if needed. As the LPA can be used if you lose mental capacity in the future, we would recommend that you put this in place now. For more information on Health and Welfare LPAs, please click here.

Losing mental capacity and LPAs

If you were to lose mental capacity and you do not have an LPA in place, your close friends and family would not be able to make decisions on your behalf. In order for them to do this, they would need to apply to the Court of Protection, which can be a lengthy, protracted and expensive process.

At Nelsons, we recommend that you put an LPA in place to make sure this doesn’t happen and to avoid there being any dispute among close friends and family concerning your health and welfare, property and finances.

An LPA can be set up with our Wills, Trusts and Probate team via telephone or video link. The team would then prepare the LPA in line with your instructions and send it out by post for signature.

For more information on creating (or amending) an LPA with a solicitor during the coronavirus lockdown, please click here.