Powers of Attorney and Office of the Public Guardian
Expertise
Either as part of an holistic succession and tax planning exercise or as a discrete exercise, we advise and prepare Powers of Attorney, general and lasting, financial and welfare and register these at the Office of the Public Guardian when and where appropriate.
We will also advise attorneys in the execution of their duties, and in certain cases act as attorney.
We can advise on and conduct applications for Statutory wills - wills for those who lack capacity to make wills without the sanction of the court - and in applications for lifetime giving by those who lack the capacity to make effective gifts.
Experience
Our experience in this area includes:
- Advising the guardian of a mentally-impaired resident of Guernsey who wished to make lifetime gifts of the resident’s assets for purposes of tax-planning where the Guernsey Courts had previously decided that authorising such gifts was outside their judicial powers. As a landmark case that changed the law in Guernsey we persuaded the Guernsey judiciary, through investigation of the historical sources to its jurisprudence, to decide that it can authorise such gifts
- Advising the family of a very wealthy patient of the Court of Protection and assisted the trustee for the patient in devising extensive lifetime transfers and continuing provision for the patient in terms acceptable to the family and the Court
- Advising on the establishment of an Individual Voluntary Arrangement and handling all compliance during the period of the arrangement
- Preparing powers of attorney for use in Spain, South Africa, the Cayman Islands and various other foreign jurisdictions
