If you have not appointed anyone to act on your behalf, the Court can appoint an attorney if necessary. Both countries have their own documents and procedures to set them up. If you have assets in both countries, you may need to have both sets of documents in place to allow decisions being made for you should you become incapacitated.
Here a lasting power of attorney is called a ‘levenstestament’. A levenstestament is commonly drawn up at the notary’s office. If you have a notarial levenstestament, the bank will simply recognise your appointed trustee. If you draw up your own levenstestament, then it remains to be seen whether the document is accepted by third parties like a bank when your attorney(s) (‘levensexecuteur’ in Dutch) needs to act for you.
Often, the levenstestament holds two powers of attorney in one document:
You decide who can make certain decisions for you, when the power of attorney can be used and whether there are any special wishes. Keep in mind that your partner cannot automatically make decisions on your behalf so you will also have to officially appoint your partner as your attorney. In most cases, the levenstestament is registered at the Central Register of Living Wills ‘Centraal Levenstestamenten Register’ which is held by the Royal Society of Notaries in the Netherlands.
In England & Wales, such a power of attorney is called a Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA). In an LPA, you record who can make financial and/or medical decisions on your behalf. You do not need a notary or solicitor to draw it up for you as you can make your own Lasting Power of Attorney using special forms issued by the Office of the Public Guardian. Your partner is not automatically authorised to act on your behalf.
There are two types of LPAs, each set out in a separate document and dealing with a different set of decisions. Each LPA has its own form. If you want to record both powers of attorney then you have to complete both forms:
Note that the rules and procedures for preparing such a power of attorney are different in England & Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, a similar document for financial matters is called a ‘continuing power of attorney “ and for medical matters a ”welfare power of attorney ’. In Northern Ireland, there is only the ‘enduring power of attorney ’ for financial matters.
