DIY LPA vs Online Service vs Solicitor: Cost Comparison 2026

The comparison has changed

For years, this comparison was about price: free on GOV.UK, a modest fee online, hundreds at a solicitor. That framing is out of date. Making an LPA with us is now free too, so two of the three routes cost nothing.

The real question was never price anyway. It is this: before you sign a legal document that hands someone control of your money or your medical care, does anybody check what you have put on it?

GOV.UK: free, official, unchecked

The government's own service is good. It is the official route, the forms it produces are the right ones, and if you are careful and confident there is nothing wrong with using it.

Its weakness is silence. It will let you name your daughter as your certificate provider, which is not allowed. It will let you plan a signing order that invalidates the whole document. Nothing warns you. You post the forms, wait weeks, and the OPG's letter is the first you hear of the problem, often with the fee spent and the clock restarted. The mistakes that most often cause this are listed here.

myLPA: free, and a person reads it

Our service is free for the same reason GOV.UK's is: the LPA is a public legal right, and we do not think the document itself should cost money. The difference is what happens after you finish the questions. A qualified estate planner rings you and goes through every answer: your attorneys, how they act, your certificate provider, who signs first. Then you sign.

We make money from optional extras, and only those. If you want us to print, post and check your signed pack, that is £99. If you have no one to act as certificate provider, we can arrange one, and your estate planner will explain the cost on your call. If you take neither, you pay us nothing, and that is fine. What's free and what isn't, in full.

Solicitor: paid advice, sometimes worth it

A solicitor gives you something neither free route does: legal advice specific to your circumstances, and someone to sit across a table from. For most straightforward family LPAs that is a premium for reassurance. But some situations genuinely justify it: a blended family where the inheritance is contested, business interests that need trust arrangements, a relative you expect to challenge the LPA. If your case has that shape, pay for the advice. We will tell you the same on the phone if we hear it in your answers.

Choosing

If you are confident and careful, GOV.UK works. If you want a person to check it before you sign, start with us for free. If your situation is complicated enough that you are unsure whether an LPA is even the right tool, see a solicitor first.

Either way, make the document. The £92 registration fee and roughly eight to ten weeks of OPG processing are the same on every route, and none of the three options is available once capacity is gone.