What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets a person you trust make decisions for you if you can't make them yourself. Two types exist: Property and Financial Affairs (money, property, bills) and Health and Welfare (care, medical decisions). Both must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before they can be used.

The plain-English version

Imagine you're in hospital after a stroke, or in the early stages of dementia, or simply abroad and incapacitated. Who has the legal authority to pay your bills, speak to your bank, or tell your care team what you'd want? Without an LPA, the honest answer is: nobody does automatically — not even your spouse or your adult children.

An LPA fixes that. It's a document you create now, while you have mental capacity, that gives one or more people — people you choose — the legal authority to act on your behalf if and when you can't. The word "lasting" matters: unlike some older forms of attorney authority, an LPA continues to be valid even if you lose mental capacity. That's the whole point.

The term Power of Attorney is a broader umbrella in English law — it covers several types of authorisation document. An LPA is the current standard form for giving someone ongoing decision-making authority that survives a loss of capacity. It replaced the older Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) in 2007.

The two types of LPA

Property and Financial Affairs

This LPA covers anything to do with your money and property. Your attorneys can manage your bank and building society accounts, pay your bills and household expenses, collect your pension or benefits, sell your home if necessary, and handle investments on your behalf. It's broad, and deliberately so.

One important feature: you can choose, within the document, whether your attorneys can use this LPA while you still have mental capacity — not only after you've lost it. Many people find this useful. If you're recovering from surgery, travelling for long periods, or simply want help managing your finances day to day, you can allow your attorneys to act on your behalf right now. Section 7 of the form is where you set this out.

Health and Welfare

This LPA covers decisions about your personal wellbeing. Where you live — at home, with family, or in a care setting. What care and support you receive. What medical treatments you receive or decline. How you spend your time.

There's a significant difference from the financial LPA: a Health and Welfare LPA can only ever be used once you've lost the capacity to make the relevant decision yourself. Your attorneys cannot use it while you're capable of deciding things for yourself. That's a legal safeguard, not a technicality.

Within this LPA, you can also give your attorneys authority over life-sustaining treatment — or choose to withhold that authority. This is covered in section 5 of the form and it deserves careful thought. Some people want their attorneys to be able to decline treatment that would only prolong suffering; others are not comfortable giving that authority away. Neither answer is wrong — it's a personal choice that the form allows you to make explicitly.

The people involved

The donor is you — the person making the LPA. You must be 18 or over and have mental capacity at the time you create it.

The attorneys are the people you appoint to act for you. You can appoint one attorney or several. If you appoint more than one, you'll need to decide whether they must all agree on every decision ("jointly") or can each act independently ("jointly and severally"). Most people choose jointly and severally for practical day-to-day reasons, with joint decisions reserved for major matters like selling a property.

The Certificate Provider is an independent person who signs the document to confirm you understood what you were signing and weren't pressured into it. They must have no conflict of interest — they can't be your attorney, a family member, or someone who stands to benefit from the LPA.

Replacement attorneys are optional but sensible — they step in if your named attorney can no longer act.

Who should make one and when

The honest answer is: most adults. Not just elderly people, and not only people with health concerns. An LPA is a document for anyone who has property, a bank account, health preferences, or people who depend on them.

The critical point is this: you can only make an LPA while you have mental capacity. Once you've lost it, the window has closed. Nobody can make an LPA on your behalf after the fact. Many people assume there's time — and then there isn't.

Age is no protection. Accidents, sudden illness, and conditions like stroke can affect people in their thirties and forties just as they can affect people in their seventies. The best time to make an LPA is before you need one.

What happens without one

If you lose mental capacity without an LPA in place, the people who care for you have no legal authority to manage your affairs or make decisions about your care. They'll need to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order — a court-supervised arrangement that gives someone authority to act.

The Court of Protection route typically takes 8 to 12 months. It costs more than an LPA — Court fees, legal fees, and ongoing supervision charges can run into thousands of pounds. And the deputy the court appoints is usually (though not always) the person you'd have chosen anyway. The LPA is simply a far more efficient, more dignified, and less expensive way to achieve the same outcome — while you're still in control of who gets that authority.

How you make and register an LPA

You fill in the LPA forms — there's one for each type — and sign them in the right order alongside your Certificate Provider and your attorneys. Then you send the completed forms to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) with the registration fee of £92 per LPA.

The OPG currently takes 8 to 20 weeks to register an LPA. Once it's registered, it's stamped and returned to you. Keep it safe — and let your attorneys know where it is.

The forms are available directly from the OPG, or you can use a service to help you prepare them correctly. Small errors in the signing process can invalidate an LPA, so it's worth getting the details right.