Dear Client,

Have you ever considered how your family would cope if you were suddenly struck down by an illness or an accident which rendered you unable to manage your own financial affairs?

Are you aware that your spouse or your children would not automatically be able to take care of these matters for you without legal authority? Sadly none of us know what the future holds and these situations do arise.

Quite apart from the sudden onset of incapacity, as life expectancy increases it is perhaps inevitable that many of us will find ourselves in need of assistance in managing our financial affairs in later life. This can lead to considerable difficulties regarding the incapacitated person's personal finances, and also can have serious ramifications where the individual concerned runs a business or has shares in a private company.

A quick and simple solution to this potential nightmare scenario is to make an Enduring Power of Attorney, which is a very straightforward document under which you can appoint one or more persons to act on your behalf in respect of your financial affairs.

It can be specific to particular assets or a general authority. If you lost mental capacity and do not have an Enduring Power of Attorney in place, then your family will be faced with the prospect of applying to the Court of Protection for a receivership order. Unfortunately, the Court of Protection is an extremely overworked organisation and its procedures can become prolonged and expensive. We have always encouraged our clients to make Enduring Powers of Attorney to avoid such applications becoming necessary.

There is now an additional incentive for making sure that you have an Enduring Power of Attorney in place. The 2005 Mental Capacity Act, which comes into force on 1st October 2007, will replace the relatively straightforward Enduring Powers of Attorney with Lasting Powers of Attorney, a far more expensive and complicated legal document.

Thankfully, Enduring Powers of Attorney will continue to be operable and there is therefore a window of opportunity to ensure that you make an Enduring Power of Attorney before the new rules come into force.

Once the 1 October 2007 deadline passes, the new Lasting Power of Attorney is likely to cost more than treble the amount of an Enduring Power of Attorney so don’t put it off! Please remember the 28th September is the last working day of the month. You will appreciate your Solicitor will need time to establish the Enduring Power of Attorney therefore you should work to Friday 21st September as the closing date.

We are grateful to Napthens LLP, Solicitors of Preston, for providing this detailed note for us.

We would urge you to contact your own Solicitors or we would be happy to introduce you to either Napthens who have offices in Preston, Bamber Bridge, Blackburn and Longridge or for clients particularly in the East Lancashire area, Solicitors with whom we have contact.

Please let us know if we can be of assistance.