Martin Lewis: “Really important, this; I think Power of Attorney is more important than a will. A will decides what happens to your assets if you die. Power of Attorney, what happens to your assets if you lose your faculties – you’re still alive and you may have your own care and family that you need to look after, but you’re no longer capable of doing it yourself.

“So it’s a ‘Lasting Power of Attorney’. Now, it used to be ‘Enduring Power of Attorney’. In Scotland, it’s ‘Continuing Power of Attorney’.”

Martin Lewis: ‘I’ve had a Power of Attorney for a decade now. It’s not just for the elderly’

“Power of Attorney. Right, this is where you nominate a friend or relative to take over your finances if you lose your faculties. Doing it does not mean you give up control now. It does not mean that. There are safeguards in place. You nominate other people to check whether it’s right that you’ve lost your faculties or not, and don’t think this is just for the elderly. I mean: accidents, stroke, early onset dementia.

“I actually – the other day I was talking to a young couple who were expecting their first child. They were talking about how they were helping their elderly relatives do a Power of Attorney. And I said: ‘Have you done one?’

“And in the pause that followed, I said: ‘This is what I want you to think of. Heaven forbid one of you were to have an accident and you lost your faculties. Are your finances such that only you individually – and most couples these days have separate finances – can access your finances?’ And they both nodded: ‘Yeah’.

“And I said: ‘Well, in that case, if you were to lose your faculties and the other was locked out, what would the financial consequences be to the other partner?’ They said it would be terrible. Well, you either need a Power of Attorney or you need to fundamentally reorganise the way that you do your finances.

“Power of Attorney is not just for the elderly. Everybody in this room should be considering one. I’ve had one for a decade now. I have no foreseeability of losing my faculties.

“You’ve got something?”

Jeanette Kwakye (Martin’s co-host): “We have, from Fraser. Now, Fraser said: ‘I did a Power of Attorney. The next week I ended up in hospital after a car crash. My Power of Attorney could deal with everything. They were amazing and it was worth every penny’. Just goes to show…”

Martin: “Not just for the elderly.”

Jeanette: “Yeah.”

‘Without a Power of Attorney, sorting your finances is generally much harder’

 “Without a Power of Attorney sorting your finances, it is generally much harder. Do not assume your family can access your funds – even to pay for your mortgage or your care if you need it. They’d need to apply via the Court of Protection or the equivalent in other countries. And I just get swamped with how long it takes, how expensive and how stressful it is.