Arranging Power of Attorney
Power of Attorney lets you arrange for someone you trust to manage your finances on your behalf. You may want to do this due to a change in your health or a change in your circumstances, such as moving abroad. You may not need someone to help you now, but you can set up a Power of Attorney for the future, just in case.
There are different types of Power of Attorney, and you may want to arrange more than one:
Ordinary Power of Attorney is typically used to cover a temporary period, such as a hospital stay. Ordinary Power of Attorney can only be used while you can make your own decisions.
Lasting Power of Attorney is typically used to give someone the legal authority over your finances if you lose your mental capacity or no longer want to make decision yourself. You can also plan for it to come into force at a future time.
Court of Protection is used when you lose your mental capacity and have no Power of Attorney in place. The Court of Protection can appoint someone to make decisions on your behalf. The UK government has provided some useful guidance on this process.
Here’s how you might use the different types of support
| Can be used if you: | Third party access | Ordinary Power of Attorney | Lasting Power of Attorney | Court of Protection |
| Need a little help with looking after your finance agreement day-to-day, for a shorter period, but don’t want somebody to make decisions for you. | Yes | No | Yes | No |
| Are physically ill, injured or disabled. | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Are preparing for when you’ll be unable to make decisions or want someone to start looking after all your finances. | No | No | Yes | No |
| No longer have the mental capacity to make decisions, and someone needs to do this for you. | No | No | No | Yes |
Third party access gives you the ability to nominate a third party to act on your behalf. They will be able to discuss details of your agreement with us in full but will not be able to make any changes to the agreement. This can only be done with your authorisation. Please complete the Third Party Authorisation Form if you wish to authorise a third party to act on your behalf.
Need to change an existing Power of Attorney registration?
If you need us to, we can revoke, amend or update attorney details that have already been registered, please contact our dedicated Specialist Support team on 0800 085 1474.