I have a client who wishes to make LPAs appointing 2 attorneys to act jointly. He is also appointing a replacement attorney. Ideally, if one of his attorneys should die before him then he would want the surviving attorney to act with the replacement attorney.
The OPG say he has to make more than one LPA with these different scenarios, which isn’t ideal.
Having attended a recent seminar, one of the cases Miles and Beattie -v- The Public Guardian 2015 EWHC2960(Ch.), although not exactly the same had similarities. Having spoken to the lecturer she advised putting a clause similar to one that was eventually accepted in this case.
I am proposing the following:
“I wish my Attorneys, X and Y to act as follows:
(a) So long as both attorneys are able and willing to act, I wish them to act jointly
(b) In the event that one of my original attorneys X or Y is unable or unwilling to act, I then appoint the remaining of my original attorneys X or Y, as the case may be, to act jointly with my replacement attorney Z
© In the event of both my original attorneys being unable or unwilling to act, I appoint Z as a replacement attorney to act solely”
I wrote to the OPG with this proposal but unsurprisingly, they said they couldn’t comment as to whether that was acceptable or not.
Before I finalise this, I am wondering if any other practitioners have had a similar situation and have used such wording which was accepted.
Any comments welcome! Thank you.
Sue Mullis
GoodyBurrett LLP