If you don’t have a Power of Attorney in place and you become unable to make decisions for yourself to do with your health and financial matters, the only option for your family and loved ones would be to make an application to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship Order. This means that a member (or members) of your family or a loved one would be appointed by the court to be your Deputy i.e. a person or persons who are entitled to deal with your health and financial decisions. However, this is a complex, lengthy and expensive process.
In the meantime, your family and loved ones would be unable to make decisions about your health or access your finances to cover everyday costs, including your bills and payments.
If you are in the position where a loved one can no longer make their own decisions about their health or finances and it is too late to put a Power of Attorney in place, you will need to apply to the Court of Protection. We can help you with this. Please see our Court of Protection section for full details of how we can help you.