If you lose capacity and you don’t have a Lasting Power of Attorney, your family would have to apply to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship Order. Taking responsibility to makes decisions on behalf of someone else is a serious matter, so it can take a long time with legal fees running into thousands of pounds. It can also mean the person that you would have chosen to make those decisions isn’t the person chosen by the Court of Protection.

“Mental capacity” means our ability to make decisions about our lives. When we can’t do this anymore, perhaps because of an injury or a degenerative disease like Alzheimer’s, the law says we ‘lack capacity’. According to the Mental Capacity Act 2005, to have capacity you must be able to understand the information you need to make a decision (for example, what the consequences are). You also need to remember it long enough to make that decision, weigh up your options, and then tell someone about your decision. You don’t have to be able to speak to tell someone, as long as you can communicate by way of simple language or visual aids.

You can choose anyone who agrees to it, as long as they’re over 18, have mental capacity, and haven’t had debt relief or gone bankrupt. You can choose more than one person, if you like, and you can choose for them to act together (if they know each other) or separately (if you’re thinking a long time in the future, and it’s impossible to get hold of one of them). The person’s usually a family member, but can be a solicitor.