The document nobody thinks about until it is too late

An enduring power of attorney appoints someone to make financial and property decisions for you when you cannot. It is the only document in this set that works while you are alive.

Why it cannot wait

It has to be signed while you still have capacity to understand it. Once capacity is gone, the document cannot be made, and the alternative is an application to a tribunal for an administrator: slower, public, and not your choice of person.

What an attorney can and cannot do

They can operate accounts, pay bills, deal with property and manage investments. They cannot make a will for you, vote for you, or benefit themselves unless the document says so expressly. Every decision has to be in your interests, and recorded.

Choosing between one attorney and two

This is one decision with four sensible answers, and the right one depends on who is nearby and who agrees with whom.

• One attorney is fast and simple, and depends entirely on that person

• Two acting jointly means every decision needs both signatures

• Two acting jointly and severally means either can act alone

• A substitute matters more than most people think

Two documents, not one

Money and property sit in one instrument. Medical treatment decisions sit in another, usually alongside an advance care directive that records what you would want. People often sign the first and forget the second.

You can restrict what your attorney may do, and you can say that the appointment only begins on incapacity. Most people should do both.

What happens without one

Someone applies to the tribunal to be appointed administrator. It is a public process, it takes months, and the person appointed may not be the one you would have chosen. Banks will not accept an informal arrangement, and family agreement is not enough.