Jessica Rea recognised as a ‘rising star’ in estate planning, elder law and relationship law
Jessica Rea recognised as a ‘rising star’ One of our relationship law, elder law and
Catherine Henry Lawyers
Capacity Documents
Capacity, in a legal sense, is your ability to make considered, independent decisions about matters affecting your life. As you grow older, the risk of losing some or all of this “capacity” increases – and it’s important to plan accordingly.
Capacity and making decisions into the future
When making decisions about your money, assets and where you live, it’s important that you have “capacity” – the ability to make such decisions and clearly communicate your decisions.
When signing a legal contract, your lawyer will always ensure you have capacity to enter the agreement – regardless of your age.
While everyone is at risk of losing capacity, this can become a particular problem as we age.
Sometimes an older person may have capacity to make smaller decisions about daily activities such as what to buy at the supermarket. However, a condition like dementia might compromise their ability to make bigger decisions involving money or legal contracts.
Capacity documents: making decisions about capacity now
Capacity documents help us prepare for these scenarios associated with cognitive decline.
Our Elder Lawyers can talk you through the various scenarios surrounding loss of capacity and make sure you have all the legal documents in place to face things on your terms – should you end up facing one of those scenarios.
“Unfortunately, many of us will experience cognitive issues at some stage during our older years, and only a small proportion of people plan for this. Our natural inclination is to put off that decision making. To live in the present and not prepare for the future because ‘it’s not going to happen to me’. It’s a really awful situation for a family, an older person and a lawyer if they haven’t planned properly for that situation where someone loses capacity and hasn’t got an enduring guardian.”
How we can help
We can advise on dementia and other incapacity issues and assist in preparing the full range of capacity documents, including:
- enduring powers of attorney
- enduring guardians
- advanced care directives
- guardianship and financial management applications.
We're here to help you.
Make an enquiry to find out where you stand.
If you have questions, would like some more information about us or our services or simply want to speak to someone, make an enquiry and a member of our Elder Law team will be in touch with you shortly.
> what our clients say
"I just wanted to touch base and thank you all so, so much for the support, patience, empathy and care you have shown me throughout this process.
... your compassion, kindness and determination to progress forward and remain positive really did make it easier"
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