Caring for a loved one: Court of Protection

We can assist by preparing an application on your behalf or we can review your application before it is submitted to the Court.
There are a range of applications that may need to be made to the Court of Protection and these included:

• Appointing a deputy for property and financial affairs or health and welfare
• Trustee application to replace an incapacitated trustee
• Statutory will or codicil
• Authority to make a one-off decision for example making a gift or purchasing a property

There are also a range of other applications that may need to be made to suit your individual circumstances, if you aren’t sure if an application needs to be made one of our specialist team will be able to advise you on this.

We can advise you on most areas of care home funding. This includes who is responsible for paying for care home fees, financial assessments by the Local Authority, deprivation of assets and topping up care home fees.

If your loved one is moving into a care home and you need some assistance or advice on any aspect of care home funding, we are here to help.

When the time comes for you to act under a Lasting Power of Attorney or to act as a deputy, you might not know where to start or how to go about sorting someone else’s affairs out.

At what is likely to be a very stressful time for you and your family, you may need some guidance on what you should or shouldn’t be doing and we are here to assist you with any queries to may have.

If you have a concern that an Attorney or Deputy may not be acting in someone’s best interests or may be doing something they shouldn’t, for example using funds for themselves, you may want some advice on your options or may want assistance with reporting them to the Office of the Public Guardian.

You may be notified of a court application which you do not agree with, we can assist you with responding to the application. For example, you may not feel that the proposed deputy is suitable or you may feel that the individual has capacity to make the decision being asked.

In addition to this, someone may object to an application you have made and you may be served with a directions order from the court. The court may set you deadlines and we can assist you with meeting these deadlines.

As a deputy you will have to prepare and submit an annual report to the Office of the Public Guardian detailing the decisions you have made, the assets the individual has, what money has been spent on and what money has come in.

This can be a cumbersome task to complete each year and can take a lot of time, we are able to complete and submit these reports on your behalf if you can provide us with your records for the year.

If you are an Attorney or Deputy for someone and you receive notification from the Office of the Public Guardian that they are conducting an investigation into your actions within your role we can assist and advise you on responding to the Office of the Public Guardian.