LPA registered but attorney lives overseas

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Hello,

Not sure if anyone has any experience of this, I don’t live in the UK so hope I am getting the terminology correct. Basically, DM has registered her LPA which I believe makes it active. Her DH (not my dad) is the first attorney and I am the second. Hopefully either the LPA will not have to be used or the DH will outlive her, but I am concerned about things if he predeceases her. Currently neither have any cognitive or physical issues but I know that things can change quickly.

I didn’t know that she had named me, I have lived abroad for many years and will do not foresee moving back at all. I would prefer not to be involved, not because I don’t care, but because I am at least a day away should there be anything urgent required. I’d be prepared to fly over and set up things as much as I can, but would not be able to keep popping over to oversee things.

I’ve had a quick look at the Gov website and I can see that I would not be able to transfer this power to my sibling. I did tell DM, when she dropped this on me that it might be very difficult in practice for me to achieve this, and it might be best to ask my sibling if they would be prepared to do it, but she told me that both she and her DH had named each other first and then their eldest child, and didn’t want to go down the route of amending the LPA.

Does anyone have any advice on how to deal with an LPA long distance? Thanks so much for any info!

Do you not need to give permission to be a LPA and sign the doc?

I don’t remember doing so…maybe it will be rejected.

i will have a chat with DM soon and see exactly what is going on

Do you know if it is an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) or Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) ? The latter replaced the former a few (around 10 ?) years ago.

As I understand it EPAs written before then are still valid, but only activated / registered with the OPG once capacity is lost. LPAs are registered with the OPG immediately and can be used straight away even if the donor has capacity, providing they give the Attorney permission to do so.

If she has just submitted an LPA then if you are named on it and she has supplied your correct details I think you should get a letter from the OPG informing you of this fact and giving you around four weeks to object to it. That's certainly how it works if you are listed as a primary Attorney and live in this country, I'm not sure if it still holds if you are only listed as a substitute and/or live abroad.

Is it LPA for financial or health related matters? If it's financial then I don't see any reason why it matters that you are abroad. All the things I've dealt with for financial matters for my pare is have been done over the phone (or email) and nothing in person. When it's registered and you need to use it with an organisation, you go online to generate a code which you can give to the Company you need to deal with (bank, council tax etc) and then they use that code to look up and verify that you have LPA. Then you can speak to them on your parents behalf.

In fact you can do the same with the health side of things (I did it with BUPA, so I could phone on their behalf to get authorisation codes/book in appointments etc). Again - most of which you can do from abroad.

Just to add, so for day to day help I think you can do this from abroad.

If it comes to something more immediate/an emergency, then I suggest you get your mum to register some sort of advanced expression of treatment wishes thing (I can't remember the name but there is an official NHS form for this) about whether they want to be resuscitated etc. It gets registered with the GP, and I presume in situations where they've lost capacity and are in hospital with no family member to ask, I presume they must contact their GP to find out what is stated.

But as a PP has suggested, if you're not comfortable with any of the LPA stuff, I'm certain you will have the opportunity to decline. Google it, I think there is quite a bit of info on government websites about the process.

You normally would have to sign an LPA to say you are willing to be part of it for it to be valid.

Thanks everyone.

I will definitely ask her to get the advance medical directive sorted out, if she hasn’t already. I’m happy to do it if it won’t cause any delays or complications for her, I just don’t remember being asked or having to have my signature witnessed for it.

Like others say as a replacement attorney you would need to sign the paperwork and receive a letter asking if you have any objections, if you didn't sign then it's not valid, you need to ask dm for a screenshot of the replacement attorney page where your signature needs to be and the type of lpa, if it's finances then she needs to tick the correct box stating when it's to come into force and the health only comes when the donor has lost capacity. The documents also need witnessing and signed.