What is a Lasting Power of Attorney? A Plain-English Guide

What a Lasting Power of Attorney is

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document. It lets you choose one or more people you trust, called attorneys, to make decisions for you if you can no longer make them yourself.

That moment can arrive slowly, through dementia. It can also arrive in an afternoon, through a stroke or an accident. The LPA is how you decide now who steps in then.

LPAs cover England and Wales only. They come under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and they must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before anyone can use them.

An LPA is not a will

A will takes effect after you die and says where your things go. An LPA works while you are alive. It protects you, not your estate. Most people need both.

The two types

Property and financial affairs

This one covers money and property: bank accounts, bills, pensions, benefits, investments, and selling or renting your home. When you make it, you choose whether your attorneys can use it as soon as it is registered, or only once you have lost capacity. Using it straight away sounds alarming, but it is useful if you are unwell or housebound and want help with the practical things while you can still supervise.

Health and welfare

This one covers medical treatment, daily care, and where you live, including whether you move into a care home. You also decide, in the document itself, whether your attorneys can consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment on your behalf. A health and welfare LPA can only ever be used once you cannot make the decision in question yourself.

Most people make both at the same time. If you are deciding between them, our guide to choosing between the two types goes through it properly.

What happens if you never make one

If you lose capacity without an LPA, nobody automatically gets the right to act for you. Not your spouse. Not your children. Banks can freeze accounts, including joint ones. Nobody can sell your house to pay for care, and doctors will make treatment decisions without a legal voice for your family.

The only route left is the Court of Protection, where a family member applies to be made your deputy. It is slow, it involves court fees, annual supervision and usually solicitor costs, and at the end of it a judge decides who manages your affairs. An LPA settles the same question in advance, for the cost of a registration fee, with you doing the choosing.

Who should make one

Any adult can lose capacity, so the honest answer is any adult. In practice, it matters most if you own property or savings, run a business, have people who depend on you, or have a family history of dementia or stroke. The one rule with no exceptions: you must have mental capacity to make an LPA. Once capacity is gone, the option is gone with it.

What it costs

Making the LPA can be free. Our service is free, like the government's own tool at GOV.UK. The difference is that with us, a qualified estate planner rings you and checks your answers before you sign. Solicitors typically charge several hundred pounds per document.

The registration fee is separate. The OPG charges £92 per LPA to register it, whichever route you take. Both types together is £184. If you receive certain means-tested benefits the fee can be waived, and if your income is under £12,000 a year you may pay half.

How making an LPA works

Choose your attorneys, and ideally a replacement in case an attorney can no longer act

Fill in the forms — our free tool asks the questions in plain English and generates the official OPG documents

Choose a certificate provider: an independent person who confirms you understand what you are signing

Sign in the right order — the donor first, then the certificate provider, then the attorneys. Getting this order wrong is a common reason the OPG rejects applications

Register with the OPG: post the forms with the £92 fee, then wait. Registration currently takes roughly eight to ten weeks

If any of that feels uncertain, that is what the check call is for. How the whole process works.

One more thing worth knowing

If you hold an Enduring Power of Attorney made before October 2007, it is still valid for property and finances. But EPAs cannot be made any more, and they never covered health decisions. If you or a parent relies on an old EPA, it is worth making a health and welfare LPA alongside it.

The quiet truth about LPAs is that the best time to make one is when it feels unnecessary. Start yours here. It is free, and a person will check it with you before you sign anything.