Solicitor running POA long term?

[Supersimkin7]

Wise ladies! Might you help at all with a query.

Old lady, demented, 90, in care home for 8 years now. Not likely to
die anytime soon but has no ADL function.

DS, 67, has been at the grindstone with extended eldercare since both parents were 70. He’s not keen on a third decade.

He wants to give up POA in favour of a solicitor running his DMs best interests.

Roughly how much does it cost? It’s the health one he’s most keen to get shot of.

Finance one is done by his twin who might also be looking to unburden.

They’ll charge at their hourly rate for acting as attorney, they should provide you with a price list of this if you ask. I would expect they’ll charge between £200-£400ph but it varies depending where you’re based etc. This is payable by the donor though (so in this case DS mum).

One thing to note is that a solicitor is unlikely to act as a Health & Welfare attorney, they often usually only act as Property & Financial Affairs attorneys as this is much more objective and less personal. Though you may find one who is willing to do so I don’t know of any near me. Bear in mind though this includes decisions such as if life support should be withheld, do you want effectively a stranger to decide this?

in terms of revoking old LPAs and preparing new ones, I’d expect in the region of £500-£1000 for a solicitor to do all of this.

Thanks so much! DM left clear instructions re what plugs & tubes pulled in or out so health POA quite easy to administer.

I reckon - based on my own mum - it’s about 10 hours a month for things like DoLs and med issues so prob in London about £3,000 a month.

Shame we don’t get that!

One point i didn’t actually consider in my initial reply - someone must have capacity to make a new LPA. So if mum has dementia, she wouldn’t have the capacity to grant a new LPA appointing a solicitor.

DS could in theory appoint a solicitor to assist him as attorney, but it isn’t quite the same and he’d still have to sign off things etc etc.

sorry I didn’t think of that at first

@treeaspen summed it up well. A solicitor is unlikely to agree to run a Health and Welfare POA. My solicitor would only agree to take on Finance, not H&W. They don't want to be making health decisions.

And if the person concerned no longer has capacity, they cannot do a new POA. In that case, if the son refuses to be attorney, social services would need to appoint a deputy, and taking out a deputyship takes several months. And again that would only be for finance, not health.

Agree with all above. Can’t see a solicitor taking on H and W in any circumstances but they’ll do the money one for a price!
I think as she no longer has capacity, a new LPA isnt an option . Office of the public guardian is the next step I think, (or handing over to social workers perhaps?) but have only heard of that where there was no LPA in place initially. You can stop being LPA though, you can’t be forced into it or to carry on with it.

Can the care home not take on more “responsibility?” I asked ours not to ring after 7pm, made known our wishes to common issues so they could just get on with it etc. sympathies, it’s a tough situation.

Just to add to the above, deputyship is very expensive as well as being lengthy! You can get one for health but it’s very very difficult to get and usually only granted for one specific task rather than as something ongoing (e.g. granted to someone just to decide switching off life support).

As pp said, you can choose to stop acting as attorney at any time if you wish. The result will just be no input on any decisions and the final say will rest with doctors etc. The likelihood in this scenario is social workers get involved, but again this isn’t always effective and can sometimes have outcomes you may not agree with

Just to add, I only had finance LPA for my mother. She never did a H&W. And it made no difference whatever. The carers/care home/pharmacists/doctors still all consulted me about health decisions in my capacity as daughter. So it is extremely likely her sons would be consulted anyway, regardless of POA, unless they specifically refused (which of course they can if they wish).

Once my mother was in a care home I found there was far less to do. A DoLS is done once a year and takes about ten minutes. From time to time I was consulted about health decisions but again these were conversations which didn't take up much time.