I ought to know the answer to this question, but advice will be appreciated.
Mum wants to change her will to cancel a bequest to a friend that she has fallen out with. The amount is only £1,000. Since the friend has cut off contact (perhaps because she does not want to deal with mum's dementia), mum's decision seems reasonable.
I'll be drafting the new will for her. It used to be my profession, and it isn't worth consulting a practising solicitor.
But does mum have capacity? She is in the early stages of dementia. Her memory is very poor and her reasoning is impaired, but my brother and I certainly regard her as capable of making major decisions in her life. She is moving house to live near me, and although my brother has poa for her, she has been fully involved in planning and decision making.
She currently only has a provisional diagnosis of dementia from her GP. She had a CT scan a month ago, and is seeing the memory nurse and then a psychiatrist in January and February.
My inclination is to play safe and ask the psychiatrist to provide a letter to be lodged with the will, stating that mum has capacity. If he says that she does not have capacity, it is no big deal.
Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation?
Mum wants to change her will to cancel a bequest to a friend that she has fallen out with. The amount is only £1,000. Since the friend has cut off contact (perhaps because she does not want to deal with mum's dementia), mum's decision seems reasonable.
I'll be drafting the new will for her. It used to be my profession, and it isn't worth consulting a practising solicitor.
But does mum have capacity? She is in the early stages of dementia. Her memory is very poor and her reasoning is impaired, but my brother and I certainly regard her as capable of making major decisions in her life. She is moving house to live near me, and although my brother has poa for her, she has been fully involved in planning and decision making.
She currently only has a provisional diagnosis of dementia from her GP. She had a CT scan a month ago, and is seeing the memory nurse and then a psychiatrist in January and February.
My inclination is to play safe and ask the psychiatrist to provide a letter to be lodged with the will, stating that mum has capacity. If he says that she does not have capacity, it is no big deal.
Has anyone else dealt with a similar situation?