Who can I choose to be my attorney?

Who can be an attorney?

You can choose anyone you want to be your attorney, as long as they are 18 or over. You can have as many attorneys as you wish, but it is usual to have between one and four. If you have more than one, you can also say how you want them to work together. 

Talk to the person/s you want to appoint as your attorney before you make the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). You can tell them about your wishes and preferences, and you can make sure that they are happy taking on the role. 

What should I consider when choosing an attorney?

Your attorney will have very important decisions to make, and a lot of responsibility to make choices that reflect your wishes. You should choose someone who knows you well and who you trust to make these decisions for you.

They should also be reliable and have the skills to carry out the role. Think about how well the person manages their own life. Do they manage their finances well? Do they make sensible decisions about their own wellbeing or the wellbeing of others? 

Choosing your LPA

• Family members – Most people choose a family member or a close friend to be their attorney. This person may not be needed to make decisions until sometime in the future. Someone younger may be appropriate.  
• Choose a replacement attorney – Also consider appointing a replacement attorney. This is a person who you would want to make decisions for you if your first choice of attorney is no longer able or willing to carry out their role. This is a good idea, and can give you extra reassurance, especially if you are only appointing one person to act as your attorney.
• Professionals – You can also ask a professional, such as an accountant or solicitor, to be your attorney. This is something to think about for a property and financial affairs LPA. This can be helpful if you don’t have anyone you feel happy choosing, or if there are conflicts within your family.
  
  A professional will charge for their time and these charges can vary. Talk to the professional before you make the LPA to understand the costs and what will be involved.

What does an attorney have to do?

Anyone you appoint as an attorney has certain duties when they are making decisions for you. They must:

• act in your best interests
• consider your past and present wishes and feelings
• keep you involved in the decisions they make, as far as you can be
• not take advantage of you to benefit themselves
• keep records and keep your money and property separate from their own.

Your attorney must always: 

• consider whether you have mental capacity to make a decision for yourself before making it for you
• assume that you have that capacity unless it is shown otherwise
• support you to make the decision yourself if you can. That might mean using different types of communication, such as pictures.

If they don’t think you have capacity to make a decision at the time, they should think about whether you could make it at another time in the future. It might be possible to delay the decision until then. There might be times even in the same day which are better for the person than others. 

You can read more about the consequences for LPAs who doesn't act as they should on the following page.

Using the LPA form

If you want, you can include instructions on the LPA registration form for your attorney to follow. Some people find it useful to include preferences that you would like them to take into account when making decisions for you.

You can also limit the types of decisions that your attorney can make by writing this on the form. For example, you might say that the attorney can make decisions about your general finances, but not about your house. However, it is more usual to give the attorney the general powers that the law allows. 

Having multiple attorneys

If you choose to have more than one attorney (for example, if you have more than one child), you must decide how your attorneys will act. The options are:

• Jointly – this means that the attorneys must always act together, so they must agree all decisions and all sign documents.
• Jointly and severally – attorneys can act together, but can also act on their own.
• Jointly in some matters and severally in others – for certain decisions, all your attorneys must agree, but for other decisions they can act independently. For example, you might decide all your attorneys must agree to selling property or decisions about medical treatment, but they can act on their own for day-to-day decisions, such as those about eating and drinking or paying regular bills.

It can be helpful to have more than one attorney so that they can share decision-making and bring different points of view to the role. 

It can be particularly useful if you own a property with someone who is your attorney. In this situation, if the property needs to be sold, it can become complicated and you should seek legal advice. Having another attorney, who does not have a share in the property, and who can act ‘jointly and severally’ with the first attorney, can make things easier.