Lasting Power of Attorney

[jake]

Has anyone used the FBU solicitors (Thompsons) to arrange Lasting Powers of Attorney, if so did you receive a good service? Alternatively did you use a local solicitor or some other service? Thanks in advance for any replies ....

[SoCo]

I had the discussion with my parents about POA whilst they are still both compos mentis. They arranged and paid for it via local solicitor cost them circa £500 that included other will amendments not sure if thats good or bad. Never had to use the POA

I know someone who tried to get this when both of their parents had gone in his words "batshit mad" he had a mare of a time as every time someone official appeared the seemed perfectly normal and refused to assist. Yet day to day life was hard for him and his parents due to their condition.

[noisycat]

I took on POA for my father after my mum died and I did it all on line with the help of my wife. I think it cost me about £85 and all I had to do was fill in the forms and get an independent witness who was not a member of the family to sign it. I went to a local solicitor for Probate,which apparently you can do yourself and that cost about £600. The application for POA was pretty straight forward as long as you take your time and check the paperwork before you send it away.

[Stressed]

I took advice on wills and power of attorney when I retired. Looking at Thompsons I came to the conclusion that their "slow" times scales and very basic will service, although free was not for us.
I used and independent will and POA specialist. It cost about £1k for personalised Wills for me and Mrs Stressed and full POA for both of us.
Very good advice was to get POA sorted out for both of us now at 50 so that our sons do not have any problems in the future.

Also part of the Will service was making us "tenants in common" on the deeds of our house. This means we own half each rather than joint ownership. therefore if one dies their half get put in a trust fund that has also been set up for the boys. This means if the remaining Stressed ever ends up in care only their half of the house can be touched to fund the care, protecting the boys inheritance.

[jake]

Thank you for your replies.

[pablo]

Just sorted out my will with Thompsons and I was delighted with the free basic will. They did send me POA bumf to have a look at the same time. As far as I remember £350 was the quote they gave me for that.Both ourselves and Thompsons agreed that as we are relatively young 62 and not going doolally yet we would leave the POA for the moment .

[spangle]

Download the form yourself from gov.uk website, fill it and book a local solicitor who will want to see you, your parent(s) and any co-attorneys, on average the endorsement should only cost you less than £100. I paid £60 several years ago, the solicitor hadn’t seen the form before. Amazing. Licence to print money.

[noisycat]

Sorry Jake, I downloaded the forms from the govt. website as Spangle said and then completed the forms. I printed two sets off and then sent one away.

[Shrek3]

The advice you received Pablo is seriously at odds with the advice I received from several sets of solicitors who all said basically that if you are waiting until there is a problem due to an illness such as dementia then you will have left it too late. Once an issue like that emerges then you will find it far more difficult, stressful and expensive to sort things out. It will also take a lot longer to process. We paid roughly £900 for Continuing POA and wills for both of us using our family solicitors but I'm sure you can do it a lot cheaper, although there are some unavoidable registration fees.
Some good, sound advice above from other posters and lots on the web but don't leave it too late. Good luck.