MORE than 99 per cent of people could find their wishes descend into financial dispute by not appointing power of attorney, a North-East law firm has warned.

Emmersons Solicitors, which has offices in Sunderland and Newcastle, is advising people to assign someone to act as their attorney after recent statistics revealed that despite Lasting Powers of Attorney regulations being introduced in 2007, only 135,000 have been registered – less than one per cent of the population.

Lasting Powers of Attorney – introduced because of the 2005 Mental Capacity Act – allow people to appoint someone to act on their behalf to deal with their personal welfare or financial affairs. It can be put in place now so that the decisions can be made at a time when people cannot do it themselves.

Solicitor Helen Martin, who specialises in power of attorney at Emmersons, said: “Everyone knows you should write a will to make sure your loved ones are provided for when you die, but what happens if you are left mentally unable to make decisions because of accident or illness?

“With an ageing population, this happens more than most people think and if you haven’t got power of attorney specifying who can look after your affairs then you’ll have to go through the Court of Protection, which is lengthy and costly.

“There’s an easy way to avoid court proceedings and that is to grant someone you trust lasting power of attorney, giving them the right to look after specific aspects of your financial affairs and welfare after you lose the capacity to do so.”

There are two types of attorney: property and affairs Lasting Powers of Attorney, which enables the attorney to act in relation to the donor’s financial affairs, for example managing their bank accounts and selling their property.

Meanwhile, personal welfare Lasting Power of Attorney enables the attorney to make decisions, such as where the donor will live and consenting to medical treatment on their behalf.

Ms Martin said: “The process of initiating a Lasting Power of Attorney is quite straightforward, but it seems to be something that most of us don’t do.

“Putting a Lasting Power of Attorney in place now will ensure that your affairs are dealt with as you want, as well as protecting you from getting taken advantage of or the Court taking control of your assets.

“It also ensures that loved ones and friends will have a less stressful time trying to guess what you would have wanted.”