Get Your Power of Attorney With McEwan Fraser Legal

Very simply at some stage in your life, you may not be able to look after your affairs because of mentalor physical incapacities. You can use a Power of Attorney for a temporary period if you are in thehospital and need help with your finances or a PoA can be used for a permanent period.

It is much easier and simpler to get your solicitor to act for you as you will need a professional person to produce a certificate that you fully understand what you are doing and haven’t been put under any pressure to sign a PoA. A solicitor will normally need to meet you to confirm you have the capacity to sign.

Generally, an attorney can make decisions about anything to do with your health and your personal well-being. This includes decisions about medical treatment where you are covered and for any type of care you will receive. The Attorney must act in your best interests at all times and you can specify in the PoA what consent your Attorney can have.

Both are very much the same but a Power of Attorney can be only be granted from an individual who can fully understand and explain their wishes while a guardianship only applies when a person is unable to make decisions on their own. It is therefore much easier to have a Power of Attorney in place because to get a guardianship order for someone who does not have the capacity you must apply to the courts, which can be a time consuming and costly process.