Estate planning: Lasting Power of Attorney ( fee of $75 waived is EXTENDED to 31 Aug 2020)

This post is trigger by a Question on at what age should a "will" be written.

The "will" part have been covered in this blog but Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) and Advance Medical Directive (AMD) which are useful is not.

** UPDATE: One thing to take note is a fee of $75 will be waived for LPA form 1 until (31/08/2018 which is this year) HAVE BEEN EXTENDED TO 31/08/2020 .**

Please refer to the link below for the updated news published on 28/06/2018.

Application fees for Lasting Power of Attorney waived for 2 more years till end-August 2020


Hope this write up can help readers save money before the waiver is over!

Before we touches more on LPA which have a Form 1 and a Form 2, is good to know what are the differences between LPA and AMD.

Quoted from https://law.com.sg/faq/advance-medical-directive-amd-similar-lasting-power-attorney-2/
A) In LPA Form 1, for Personal Welfare powers, there is a question on whether your Donee’s authority shall extend to giving or refusing consent to the carrying out or continuation of treatment, including the conduct of a clinical trial, by a person providing health care for me. These decisions are made by the appointed Donee.

B) An Advance Medical Directive (AMD) is a legal document you sign in advance to inform your doctor that you do not want the use of any life-sustaining treatment to be used to prolong your life in the event you become terminally ill and unconscious and where death is imminent.

The AMD can be made by any person, aged 21 years and above, and is not mentally disordered. The AMD form is a legal document which must be completed and signed in the presence of two witnesses before it is returned to the Registrar of AMDs. The patient’s doctor must be one of the two witnesses, while the other witness must be at least 21 years old. In addition, both witnesses must not have any vested interests in the patient’s death."




The LPA is a legal document that allows a person to appoint an individual to make key decisions for him/her, should he/her lose his/her mental capacity and become unable to do so.

Basically, the DONEE can access the bank account of the DONOR if is not a joint account or the joint account is not with the DONEE.

In that way, the DONOR "savings" can be used for the welfare of the DONOR without a scenario that

a) there is money from the DONOR but cannot be used because no one can access the money in the bank account
b) family members hope the DONOR pass away so the "Will" can take place and money can be accessed from the bank account. (Very sad if this happens!)
For the above, LPA Form 1 should suffice.

This is required when a person is
1. Single
2. Still Divorced
3. Does not have a joint account with a care taker.
For Singapore Citizen

The cost for LPA Form 1 is  
a) $75 for Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) ** (waived until  31 Aug 2018) 

b) LPA certificate issuer that can be (i) accredited medical practitioner, (ii) lawyer, and (iii) psychiatrist
The cheapest is accredited medical practitioner which fee range from $25 to $50.

There might be more cost depending on situation.

LPA Form 2 is for DONOR who wish to grant DONEE/S Customised Powers and this will require a Lawyer. For Singapore Citizen
The cost for LPA Form 2 for Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is $200.
I won't touch much on the cost for LPA Form 2 because the Lawyer's Fee could varies depending on the customization.

For more information on fees not for Singapore Citizen, you can refer to the link below.
https://www.publicguardian.gov.sg/opg/Lists/Resources/Attachments/53/Search%20Fees%20Table.pdf

Forms Download:
Advance Medical Directive (AMD)
LPA 

Another Good Deed Done!