Case Studies Elderly & Vulnerable Clients

Our client was a recently bereaved widow who wished to sell the family home and move abroad to be near relatives. The widow was frail and reluctant to act in the estate administration. There was no Will or any children of the marriage. We suggested to the client that she could appoint one of our private client solicitors who are members of STEP (Society for Trusts and Estate Practitioners) to be her attorney. Under the power of attorney our solicitor was able to quickly apply for probate on the widow’s behalf to cash in the assets of the estate and to sell the family home within a short period of time. This enabled resources to be efficiently transferred to the widow overseas to pay for her new accomodation.

Our client had recently been diagnosed with a form of dementia. She had been strongly recommended by her consultant that she consider making arrangements so that her family could assist her with managing her bank accounts and other property and finances in the future. We were able to register both a Lasting Power of Attorney for property and financial affairs and a Lasting Power of Attorney for health and welfare for our client ensuring that her family had the necessary authority to make decisions on their mother’s behalf in relation to both her financial affairs and what treatment she received (or did not receive) in the future.

On our advice our client instructed us to appoint her three children as Attorney’s on a joint and several basis. this meant that they could all act together but they could also act independently of each other as this would be more flexible bearing in mind that they did not see their mother at the same time.The added advantage of this was that the document would continue to be effective even if one of her children could no longer act. Putting these documents in place provided our client and her family with valuable peace of mind and in turn protected the family from unnecessary upset when her health subsequently deteriorated and she was unable to make important decisions for herself.