Signing your Lasting Power of Attorney
Signing your Lasting Power of Attorney can be extremely tricky with plenty of room for error. At Pattison James Associates, we specialise in making this as simple as possible for our clients.
Innovation has been key to our success, an example of this is the design and implementation of our Lasting Power of Attorney signing tabs. We spotted how difficult signing LPAs can be and the number of errors that ensue and so we designed our own brightly coloured and labelled sticky tabs to clearly show our clients which bits to sign and when, specifically for the various signing stages of your Lasting Power of Attorney documents, making it extremely easy to complete these error-free first time round.
When we send our clients their Lasting Power of Attorney documents to be signed we provide simple instructions on how to sign however this is the signing process to be followed, when signing your Lasting Power of Attorney documents (LPAs).
Once we have drafted your LPAs, you need to sign them, along with attorney(s), replacement attorneys if required, witnesses and your certificate provider, before they can be registered.
Signing should take place as soon as possible as you don't know when you might lose mental capacity.
Stages of Signing
There are three stages when signing and these must be followed in the correct order. For example, you cannot complete Stage 3 before Stage 2 has been completed; the stages of signing are as follows:
Stage 1: The Donor signs and dates (the person who's LPA it is) to confirm they are happy with the attorneys/replacement attorneys appointed. They will sign Section 9 of the Property & Financial Affairs LPA and they will sign Sections 5 & 9 of the Health & Welfare LPA. If continuation sheets have been used, they will also need to be signed at the same time. All signatures will need to be witnessed by one person and must be completed at the same time, on the same date and with the same witness for all signatures.
Stage 2: The Certificate Provider signs and dates to confirm the donor has capacity (a member of Pattison James Associates would typically act as the Certificate Provider).
Stage 3: The Attorneys (and Replacement Attorneys if selected) sign and date to confirm they are happy to be an attorney/replacement attorney.
Who can act as a Witness:
All witnesses must be over the age of 18 and of sound mind.
Witness to Stage 1: The Donor's witness. Their witness must not be one of the nominated attorneys/replacements attorneys and must not be related to the Donor.
Witness to Stage 2: The Certificate Provider's signature does not require witnessing.
Witness to Stage 3: The Attorneys witness. The Donor CANNOT be a witness to an Attorneys signature. Anybody else can be a witness and so it is common for Attorneys/Replacement Attorneys to witness each other's signatures. Further, the spouse/civil partner of an Attorney CAN witness be a witness to an Attorney's signature.
Once the Lasting Power of Attorney documents have been correctly signed they are then ready to be registered however they don't need to be registered straight away. They can be registered now or years down the line, even after the Donor has lost capacity. Either way, Pattison James Associates handle the registration process for our clients at no additional cost and will also look to claim any registration fee discounts available to the Donor at the time, leaving the Donor or Attorneys needing only to pay the applicable Office of the Public Guardian registration fee at the time. Signing the registration forms and any Registration Fee Waiver / Registration Fee Reduction is relatively simple in comparison to that of the LPA documents themselves and don't require witnessing, again we send these out with the relevant brightly coloured sticky labels to show you where to sign and date.
Making amendments and corrections
If you make an error while signing/dating/witnessing you can amend and then sign the amendment and ask your witness to sign the amendment however please feel free to contact us for a replacement document to re-sign.
Need help with signing your Lasting Power of Attorney documents?
If you would like help in signing your Will please refer initially to the covering letter and any signing instructions sent with it.
Pattison James Associates staff members can witness your documents in our head office in Camberley by appointment only. We do not have free parking on-site however there is a mutli-story car park by Camberley Theatre (less than a minute's walk from our office) as well free parking at the opposite end of Portesbery Road though this is a 7-minute walk away from our office.
Pattison James Associates staff members can visit you to act as witness(es) however this service is chargeable at the rate of £75 per witness + £0.40 per mile.
When you purchase Lasting Power of Attorney documents from Pattison James Associates, we will ensure that the process is made as easy as possible for you from start to finish. Please phone us today on 01276 903400 or submit your enquiry here: