Lasting Power of Attorney Explained: Protecting Yourself and Your Family

A Lasting Power of Attorney is a legal document that names one or more "attorneys" who can make decisions for you if you cannot make them yourself. In England and Wales there are two separate LPAs, governed by the Mental Capacity Act 2005.

A Property and Financial Affairs LPA covers decisions about money. That might mean operating your bank accounts, paying your bills, collecting your income and benefits, managing your investments, or selling your home. Once registered, this type of LPA can be used while you still have capacity — for example, if you are recovering from an operation, or living abroad and need someone to handle UK matters — provided you have given that permission. Or you can specify that it only takes effect if you lose capacity.

A Health and Welfare LPA covers personal decisions. That includes where you live, your day-to-day care, the medical treatment you receive, and the people you see. You can also choose whether to give your attorney authority to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment. Unlike the financial LPA, a Health and Welfare LPA can only be used once you have lost the capacity to make these decisions yourself.

Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own slightly different systems (continuing and welfare powers of attorney in Scotland, and enduring powers of attorney in Northern Ireland). The principles are similar but the forms and rules differ.

You can make an LPA online through the official government service or by completing the paper forms. The online process walks you through who you want to appoint, how they should make decisions, and any specific instructions or preferences you want to include. Once the form is drafted, it must be signed by you (the "donor"), your attorneys, a certificate provider (someone who confirms you understand what you're signing), and any witnesses.

The signed document then needs to be sent to the Office of the Public Guardian for registration. The OPG quotes a processing time of around 8 to 10 weeks, although in practice some cases take longer. An LPA cannot be used until it has been registered.

You can make an LPA yourself without a solicitor, and many people do. If your situation is more complex — for example you own a business, have international assets, or want to include specific instructions about how the LPA should operate — speaking to a solicitor can be sensible. Solicitors' fees vary widely; many quote a few hundred pounds for both types of LPA for one person.

The official GOV.UK service for making an LPA online is at gov.uk/power-of-attorney.

The registration fee charged by the Office of the Public Guardian is £92 per LPA. As most people set up both a Property and Financial Affairs LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA, the typical total registration cost is £184.

The fee was previously £82 and increased to £92 on 17 November 2025. The OPG runs a fee reduction scheme:

• If your gross annual income is below £12,000, you may be entitled to a 50% reduction, bringing the fee down to £46 per LPA.
• If you receive certain qualifying means-tested benefits, you may be entitled to a full exemption.
• From 2 February 2026, Universal Credit no longer automatically qualifies a donor for a fee reduction, although other benefits still do.

These are government fees. If you use a solicitor or another professional service, their charges are on top.

The most important decision when setting up an LPA is who you appoint. Attorneys must be over 18 and have mental capacity themselves. A property and financial affairs attorney must not be subject to a Debt Relief Order or be an undischarged bankrupt.

You can appoint one attorney or several. If you appoint more than one, you decide whether they must act:

• Jointly — meaning they must all agree on every decision. Safer but slower.
• Jointly and severally — meaning any one of them can act alone. More flexible but with less built-in oversight.
• Jointly for some decisions and jointly and severally for others — a hybrid for situations where you want both sign-offs for big choices but day-to-day flexibility for the smaller ones.

You can also name replacement attorneys to step in if your first choices can no longer act. This matters more than it might sound: an LPA without replacements can become unusable if an attorney dies, becomes ill, or simply withdraws.

Think practically as well as emotionally. The right attorney is someone you trust without reservation, who is good with the matters they'd be dealing with (financial sense for the finance LPA, calm and caring judgement for the health LPA), and who is realistically available — not living on the other side of the world or already stretched thin caring for others.

A will and an LPA are sometimes confused, but they do different jobs. A will controls what happens to your estate after you die. An LPA controls what happens before — if you lose capacity during your lifetime.

For an estate plan to work properly, both need to be in place and kept up to date. Reviewing them after major life events — marriage, divorce, the birth of children or grandchildren, a significant change in your finances, a move abroad — helps make sure they still reflect what you'd want. An LPA doesn't have an expiry date but the people you'd want to act on your behalf may change over time.

Without an LPA, your family cannot simply take over your affairs if you lose capacity. They would need to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a "deputy". That process is more expensive, takes many months, and gives the court ongoing supervisory powers that some families find intrusive. Putting an LPA in place while you have capacity is almost always cheaper, faster and less stressful.