What is a lasting power of attorney? A lasting power of attorney, usually shortened to LPA, is a legal document that lets you appoint one or more people to make decisions on your behalf if you later become unable to make them yourself. The person making the LPA is called the donor, and the people appointed are called attorneys. It is a way of keeping control over what happens to you if an accident or illness leaves you unable to make your own decisions, a state the law calls lacking mental capacity. The document only applies in England and Wales, where it is governed by the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Scotland and Northern Ireland have separate systems, so an LPA made in England and Wales does not cover property or decisions there. Crucially, an LPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used at all: an unregistered LPA has no legal effect, however carefully it was drawn up.

The two types of LPA. There are two separate LPAs, and most people who make one end up making both, because they cover genuinely different parts of life. A health and welfare LPA gives an attorney power over personal decisions: daily routine such as washing, dressing and eating, medical care and treatment, moving into a care home, and, if the donor specifically grants it, decisions about life-sustaining treatment. It can only be used once the donor has lost the mental capacity to make the decision in question. A property and financial affairs LPA covers money and property: managing a bank or building society account, paying bills, collecting benefits or a pension, dealing with investments and tax, and buying or selling a home. Unlike the health and welfare version, it can be used as soon as it is registered, with the donor permission, even while the donor still has full capacity. That makes it useful for people who simply want help managing their affairs, not only for emergencies.

Who can make an LPA? You must be 18 or over and have mental capacity, meaning the ability to understand, weigh up and communicate a decision, at the time you make the LPA. You do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen. The capacity condition is the part people most often miss: an LPA cannot be made for someone who has already lost capacity. Once capacity is gone, the only route left is a Court of Protection deputyship, which is slower, more expensive and more restrictive. That is why solicitors and charities repeat the same advice: make an LPA while you are healthy and under no pressure. It is not only a document for older people. Accidents and sudden illness are not limited by age, and an LPA is best understood as a what-if document, not an elderly-person document.

Choosing your attorneys. An attorney must be 18 or over and must have mental capacity themselves. They can be a relative, a friend, a professional such as a solicitor, or a husband, wife or partner. They do not need to live in the UK or be a British citizen. When choosing, think about how well they manage their own affairs, how well you know them, whether you trust them to act in your best interests, and whether they would be willing to take on the role. There are limits: you cannot appoint someone who is bankrupt, or someone subject to a Debt Relief Order, as attorney for a property and financial affairs LPA. If you appoint more than one attorney, you must decide whether they act jointly, meaning they must all agree on every decision, or jointly and severally, meaning each can act alone. You can also mix the two, with some decisions joint and others joint and several. You can name replacement attorneys to step in if your first choice can no longer act. Attorneys must act in the donor best interests at all times, and the Office of the Public Guardian can investigate concerns about how an attorney is behaving.

What does an LPA cost? Applying to register an LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £92, so registering both types costs £184 for one person, or £368 for a couple making both LPAs each. The GOV.UK online service itself is free to use; the registration fee is the only cost if you do the paperwork yourself. A reduction may be available if your gross annual income is below £12,000, and an exemption may apply if you receive certain means-tested benefits, such as Income Support. Using professional help adds to the bill: will-writers and estate planners typically charge £300 to £1,000 or more for fixed-fee packages covering both LPAs, while a solicitor typically charges £600 to £1,200 or more, which is worth paying where there is any complexity, such as a business, property abroad, a blended family or any prospect of disagreement. Fees change over time, so always confirm the current registration fee on GOV.UK before applying.

How to make and register an LPA. The process has three stages: choose your attorneys, fill in the forms, and register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian. You can make an LPA online through the GOV.UK service, which walks you through each section, lets you save and return to the form, and checks your answers as you go, or you can use paper forms. Either way, the finished forms must be printed and signed, and everyone must sign the same original document: the donor, the attorneys, witnesses and a certificate provider, who confirms that the donor is making the LPA by choice and understands what they are doing. Digital signatures and photocopied signatures are not accepted. Witnesses and certificate providers must be 18 or over. Attorneys can witness each other signing, but they cannot witness the donor signing and cannot act as the certificate provider. Before registering, the donor sends a notification form to the people to notify listed in the LPA, who then have three weeks to raise any concerns with the Office of the Public Guardian. Registration takes eight to ten weeks if there are no mistakes in the application, and it is usually quicker if the LPA is made and paid for online. If a mistake is found, the Office of the Public Guardian may allow it to be corrected and resubmitted within three months for £46.

Using an LPA once it is registered. A registered health and welfare LPA can only be used when the donor lacks capacity for the decision at hand, which means the attorney must judge, decision by decision, whether the donor can still decide for themselves. A registered property and financial affairs LPA can be used immediately with the donor permission, which is how many families use it to help an older relative with banking and bills long before any crisis. Banks, care providers and other organisations will usually ask to see the registered document, or a certified copy of it. To certify a copy, write on the bottom of each page, I certify this is a true and complete copy of the corresponding page of the original lasting power of attorney, and on the final page, I certify this is a true and complete copy of the lasting power of attorney, then sign and date every page. Copies can also be certified by a solicitor or a person authorised to carry out notarial activities. Keep the original somewhere safe, and make sure your attorneys know where to find it: a registered LPA is only useful if the people who need it can lay their hands on it when it matters.

What happens if you do not have an LPA? If you lose mental capacity without an LPA in place, your family cannot simply step in. Even a spouse or an adult child has no automatic legal right to manage your bank account or speak to your care team. Instead, someone must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship, a court-appointed equivalent that is slower, far more expensive and more restrictive on an ongoing basis. A deputyship typically costs over £2,000 in the first year alone, including the application fee, an assessment fee, a security bond and solicitor costs, plus several hundred pounds a year in ongoing supervision fees after that. It also takes several months to obtain, during which decisions about care, bills and property can be stuck in limbo. The contrast is the whole argument for making an LPA in good time: £184 in registration fees and a few weeks of paperwork, against thousands of pounds and months of court process when it is too late.

Changing or ending an LPA. You can end your own LPA if you still have mental capacity, by sending the Office of the Public Guardian the original LPA and a written statement called a deed of revocation. You can also remove a single attorney from a registered LPA while you still have capacity, using a partial deed of revocation sent to the Office of the Public Guardian with the original LPA, and you must tell the attorney you are removing them. If you want to add a new attorney, you need to end the existing LPA and make a new one. You, or one of your attorneys, must also tell the Office of the Public Guardian if you or an attorney change name or address, or if an attorney dies. If an attorney dies and the attorneys were appointed to act jointly, or there was only one attorney, the LPA is cancelled. If they were appointed jointly and severally, the Office of the Public Guardian updates the LPA instead. Older documents still matter too: if an LPA was made on an older paper form, it can still be registered using form LP2 in some cases, so an old form is not automatically useless.

Scotland, Northern Ireland and getting help. The rules above cover England and Wales only. Scotland uses continuing powers of attorney for financial matters and welfare powers of attorney for health and care, registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland). Northern Ireland still uses enduring powers of attorney, which cover property and financial affairs only. If your situation is complex, a solicitor is worth the cost, and the Office of the Public Guardian can help with the process itself: its helpline is 0300 456 0300, open Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday from 9am to 5pm and Wednesday from 10am to 5pm, and its postal address is PO Box 16185, Birmingham B2 2WH. This guide is general information, not legal advice, and fees and rules change, so check the current position on GOV.UK before you start. The one fact that does not change is the timing: an LPA made calmly, in good health, is straightforward. One attempted after a diagnosis or a crisis often is not possible at all.