Enduring power of attorney change will cost Brits an extra £7bn

From 1 October significant changes are being introduced to the Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA), meaning that the cost of implementing this document through a high street solicitor will rise to around £350 from around £110. This is because the EPA will be replaced by documents called the Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) which will be much longer and more complicated to complete.

In advance of the change, new research from MORE TH>N reveals that two thirds of British adults have members of their family or friends who would depend on them to manage their money affairs if unable to do so themselves, but only one in seven (14 per cent) have an EPA in place – leaving over 25 million with no provision for this.

The change in the law has caught Brits unawares, with 66 per cent claiming to not know about it or how it will affect them. The changes will cost the British public an extra £7 billion.

An EPA document is an important legal document that enables someone to choose one or more people to manage their financial affairs in the event that they are incapacitated and therefore unable to manage their money matters themselves. Despite its importance, MORE TH>N’s research reveals that one in ten Britons who do not have one do not even know what it is. Over four in ten (43 per cent) Britons simply do not think they need it and one in six (17 per cent) wouldn’t know how to go about implementing it.

When asked how much they would be prepared to pay for the document, over one in five people (21 per cent) are not prepared to pay anything and nearly one in three (30 per cent) would only pay £50 or less. The majority (64 per cent) do not believe that they should pay as much as £350 for these documents and over half (55 per cent) believe that this huge increase in fee cannot be justified.

Simon Logan, Head of Law at MORE TH>N, commented: “An Enduring Power of Attorney allows you to give others the legal ability to manage your affairs, if you ever become unable to manage them yourself or communicate your wishes, possibly as a result of age, mental illness or incapacity. It’s astonishing that not only the majority of the population don’t have one, but so many people simply do not understand what it is. The changes also mean the process is going to be more time consuming and expensive and we are calling for people to register for the EPA before the 1 October”.

One solution is MORE TH>N Legal Services - an add-on to the company’s home insurance policy costing under £18 a year. This includes an online legal document service where customers can prepare an EPA using an interactive question and answer system. The document is then reviewed and checked by MORE TH>N’s qualified legal team. When questioned, over a third of Britons (36 per cent) would consider using an online service rather than going direct to a solicitor, and 67 per cent believe that many people simply cannot afford to go to a solicitor for this advice.

Simon Logan, Head of Law at MORE TH>N concluded: “For those that don’t manage to register for their EPA before the 1 October, MORE TH>N has developed online LPA documents as an alternative to going to see a solicitor that is much more cost effective and less time consuming.”