We have now passed 1 October, when enduring powers of attorney (EPA) were replaced by lasting powers of attorney (see [2007] Gazette, 11 October, 24) and it is only within the last few days that the full horrors of the new regime have become apparent.


I have been pressing for weeks for a specimen of the new forms, but despite many inspections of the government websites, these were not available until just before the new legislation came into force - typical!



I commonly prepare wills for a price between £100 and £150 - we are in a competitive marketplace and prices always have been low.



For many years, I have endeavoured to persuade testators at the same time to make an EPA just in case the worst happened to them in the form of a serious stroke or head injuries in a road accident (normally Alzheimer's or senile dementia develops sufficiently slowly to allow appropriate steps to be taken at the relevant time, but the first two can, of course, effect an immediate removal of capacity).



I have typically charged £40 to £50 for an EPA and I have found the take-up to be around 90%. It has always been possible to present the preparation of these documents as being the equivalent of the payment of a single premium insurance against the risk.



The new forms and their requirements are so complex that I will have to be looking at a figure around six to eight times as much as previously. How on earth am I to persuade a client purchasing a will for £100 to make an LPA at a cost of a further £400? I regard this as being, for all practical purposes, a non-starter.



Is the reason for the introduction of LPAs a desire to boost the number of cases handled by the Court of Protection? I have to warn clients that the costs of applying for a receiver after taking into account court fees, medical consultants' fees and the like is frequently around £2,000 and one then has to budget for additional fees as time and circumstances progress.



The vast majority of the powers which I have created have contained a restriction to the effect that they do not come into force until such time as a registered medical practitioner has certified that the donor is no longer capable of managing his own affairs, which is, of course, a circumstance in which an EPA would have required registration in any event. This has always worked perfectly satisfactorily in practice.



Is the new set-up designed to provide employment for a further batch of civil servants?



RM Napier, Albinson Napier & Co, Warrington