Personal Planning for Later Life
Use of Attorneys
Appointing someone whom you trust to assist in the management of your affairs is vital. It is important that they be given the right powers, including power to make gifts and engage in inheritance tax planning. At one time, making a Power of Attorney was a simple affair attended by little formality. Now it must be signed before a Scottish solicitor, advocate or a registered medical practitioner holding the view that the granter understands what he or she is doing and is not under undue influence to do so.
Continuing Powers of Attorney
A continuing Power of Attorney enables the granter to nominate someone to deal with his or her financial affairs. The powers conferred upon the Attorney can have immediate effect, or, alternatively, can be postponed until such a time in the future when the granter is no longer capable of dealing with such matters.
Senior partners in Biggart Baillie are directors of Bailford Trustees Limited and it is possible for Bailford to act as a sole or joint Attorney if desired.
Welfare considerations
Welfare attorneys only require to act if you lose your own capacity to take decisions about your own health and welfare. Sometimes people like to grant these along with Living Wills. Only human beings can be appointed as welfare attorneys. As Bailford Trustees Limited is a corporate body, it is therefore unable, by law, to be a welfare attorney. A Welfare Power of Attorney, as the name suggests, allows the Attorney to deal with various aspects of the granter's personal welfare.
Care Plans
If you survive into old age, you may not always be healthy and capable of living alone. If you need to enter a retirement or nursing home you should consider how to fund this and how you will be cared for. Some insurance companies offer the possibility of providing against these costs, sometimes even after you have gone into care.
Contacts for Personal Planning for Later Life