Well, assuming you know anything about Powers of Attorney (and if you don’t, click here) then you will know that you are placing yourself in the hands of your Attorney.
You must, therefore, have absolute trust in this person and you must, therefore, ask yourself (and be honest) do I trust this person to look after me or will they, rather, look after themselves?
If you have doubts, find someone else!
Most of the time, in my experience, it is your loved ones that you appoint. Your spouse or partner and/or children are the usual favourites.
A Power of Attorney kicks in when you decide that it should but that decision is made by you when you make the document.
Most people make it have immediate effect. This is because when you need an Attorney to make decisions for you, you need it now (for instance, if you’ve had a stroke or a fall). If it does not take effect until medical practitioners have decided you have lost your capacity, there is going to be a delay whilst they get themselves together. More information here
If you don’t have trust, you should not make it immediate but, then, if you do not have trust, you should not be appointing that person!
The benefit of immediacy, however, is that your Attorney can get to work whenever you ask them to. Perhaps there will be occasions when you cannot be bothered to go to the bank or you are abroad. It’s a very flexible document!
Making one does not take long and they are “file and forget”.
You can make one immediately – just go to MyScottishAttorney
And if you don’t want to do it yourself, your kids can make it for you
Bruce de Wert
Scottish Solicitor
