Sep 4, 2026 · 59 min · 12 segments
The bit most people get wrong? Making a will and thinking the job is done. If you lose the ability to make your own decisions — through illness, injury or age — your family can’t simply step in…
Yeah, so today I thought it'd be nice if we talked about lasting powers of attorney.
Okay.
The last time I read somewhere, I think the percentage of people in the UK who actually have a lasting power of attorney was something quite cripplingly low.
I can't remember what it was.
I can't remember whether it was people with wills was 40% and lasting power of attorneys was something like 20% or something that atrocious.
I mean, it's obviously very well established that we do tend to put off making our wills.
And as a result, there's only kind of a small proportion of us that have actually got round to actually taking that step.
Obviously, yes, I very much encourage you to think very deeply about your inheritance plans and get some advice and guidance and get your will in place so that you've got that certainty and that clarity about what the long term future looks like.
But I think of the people who take that step and sort out their inheritance plans, there's then another subset of people that only go that far and therefore they haven't fully done the job.
I often say that when you've made your will, you've made half a job, basically, because all you've done is think about or make decisions about what happens after you've gone.
You've not actually made proper protective decisions about what needs to happen in the future if ever you get poorly.
Or you lose the ability to make your own decisions, maybe in your later life or because of an illness or an injury or whatever.
And so, yes, I very much encourage people, you know, me going to the top of the classes, get your will in place and your lasting powers of attorney.
And then you've covered both significant eventualities and you really have achieved success.
the the widest possible spectrum of protection um that's available here in england and wales jurisdiction really
you obviously deal with this on a regular basis i i appreciate i'm taking a slight sidestep here but based on your experiences of people making wills or even perhaps not making wills but certainly those who do make wills why is it that so few people do take that next step and get a lasting powers of attorney put in place
I think because it's not been as common and as sort of embedded in habit as traditionally wills have been, you know, for, well, for pretty much forever really.
It's always known culturally to be a thing that you can make your will and, you know, put your affairs in order as it were, but actually creating lasting powers of attorney to put your affairs in order concerning what happens in your later life if you're still here, That's a relatively new concept.
It was only really introduced a few decades ago and actually lasting powers of attorney, the current iteration.
It used to be enduring powers of attorney some years ago, but this has only been in place about 20 years.
And so it's not as embedded, I think, in people's mindset as something that ought to be considered that is a sensible choice, really.
what lasting powers of attorney do why they're important nowadays and i'll tell you why because historically you know our grandparents generation um they tended to go through their lives go through midlife get old live their seven their what three score years and ten and pass away they didn't tend to have protracted old ages the way our parents generation do and as we can expect our generation to do as well um so what's very much happening sociologically here in uk and across many many countries developing countries what sorry developed countries is that we have an increasingly aging population we have more and more people who are living in their 60s 70s 80s 90s and beyond but with each decade that passes the risk of you becoming frail or losing your ability to just do your day-to-day admin or even to make the big decisions in life that risk gets a little bit greater with every big zero birthday that you have um and so It's more important than ever because we all expect a long old age nowadays.
Yeah, so today I thought it'd be nice if we talked about lasting powers of attorney.
Okay.
The last time I read somewhere, I think the percentage of people in the UK who actually have a lasting power of attorney was something quite cripplingly low.
I can't remember what it was.
I can't remember whether it was people with wills was 40% and lasting power of attorneys was something like 20% or something that atrocious.
I mean, it's obviously very well established that we do tend to put off making our wills.
And as a result, there's only kind of a small proportion of us that have actually got round to actually taking that step.
Obviously, yes, I very much encourage you to think very deeply about your inheritance plans and get some advice and guidance and get your will in place so that you've got that certainty and that clarity about what the long term future looks like.
But I think of the people who take that step and sort out their inheritance plans, there's then another subset of people that only go that far and therefore they haven't fully done the job.
I often say that when you've made your will, you've made half a job, basically, because all you've done is think about or make decisions about what happens after you've gone.
You've not actually made proper protective decisions about what needs to happen in the future if ever you get poorly.
Or you lose the ability to make your own decisions, maybe in your later life or because of an illness or an injury or whatever.
And so, yes, I very much encourage people, you know, me going to the top of the classes, get your will in place and your lasting powers of attorney.
And then you've covered both significant eventualities and you really have achieved success.
the the widest possible spectrum of protection um that's available here in england and wales jurisdiction really
you obviously deal with this on a regular basis i i appreciate i'm taking a slight sidestep here but based on your experiences of people making wills or even perhaps not making wills but certainly those who do make wills why is it that so few people do take that next step and get a lasting powers of attorney put in place
I think because it's not been as common and as sort of embedded in habit as traditionally wills have been, you know, for, well, for pretty much forever really.
It's always known culturally to be a thing that you can make your will and, you know, put your affairs in order as it were, but actually creating lasting powers of attorney to put your affairs in order concerning what happens in your later life if you're still here, That's a relatively new concept.
It was only really introduced a few decades ago and actually lasting powers of attorney, the current iteration.
It used to be enduring powers of attorney some years ago, but this has only been in place about 20 years.
And so it's not as embedded, I think, in people's mindset as something that ought to be considered that is a sensible choice, really.
what lasting powers of attorney do why they're important nowadays and i'll tell you why because historically you know our grandparents generation um they tended to go through their lives go through midlife get old live their seven their what three score years and ten and pass away they didn't tend to have protracted old ages the way our parents generation do and as we can expect our generation to do as well um so what's very much happening sociologically here in uk and across many many countries developing countries what sorry developed countries is that we have an increasingly aging population we have more and more people who are living in their 60s 70s 80s 90s and beyond but with each decade that passes the risk of you becoming frail or losing your ability to just do your day-to-day admin or even to make the big decisions in life that risk gets a little bit greater with every big zero birthday that you have um and so It's more important than ever because we all expect a long old age nowadays.
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