As an important safeguard against abuse, one of the requirements to validly make a Lasting Power of Attorney is for the document to be signed by an independent person who can confirm that the person (‘the donor’) making the power:
The choice of a suitable certificate provider is a personal and important decision.
There are two types of certificate provider:
A registered health care professional, such as a
General Practitioner;
A registered social worker;
A barrister, solicitor or advocate;
An Independent Mental Capacity Advocate; Someone who considers they have the relevant professional skills and expertise to be a certificate provider.
A certificate provider cannot be:
The advantage of having a knowledge based certificate provider is that they are unlikely to charge you for this. However, if challenged, they could be called to the Court of Protection to justify their opinion. They would need to show to the Court that they know how to assess capacity under the Mental Capacity Act 2005.
If the challenge were successful, the LPA would not be valid. A skills based certificate provider would usually charge, but would be expected to have higher skills and expertise than the knowledge based adviser.
Whoever the donor chooses, he should be sure that the person would be able to demonstrate the following:
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