Make a lasting power of attorney
Online, checked by a solicitor, and guided all the way to registration.
£120 per LPA, including VAT.
A lasting power of attorney (LPA) lets you choose people you trust to make decisions for you. They can act if you become unable to make those decisions yourself. You have to make one while you still have the mental capacity to do it. Once capacity has gone it is too late.
What are the two types?
Property and financial affairs
Your money and your things. Your attorneys can run your bank accounts, pay your bills, deal with your pension and sell your home. You choose whether they can start as soon as the LPA is registered, or only once you lose capacity.
Health and welfare
Your care and your treatment. Your attorneys can decide where you live, what your daily routine looks like and what medical care you get. You can also give them the power to accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment. This type can only be used once you cannot make the decision yourself.
Most people make both. They are two separate documents, and each one carries its own fee.
How does it work?
1
Answer the questions
Our questionnaire asks about you, the people you want to appoint and how you want them to act. It is written in plain English. You can stop part way through and come back to it.
2
A solicitor checks it
A solicitor reads your answers and your draft documents before you sign anything. If a choice you have made could cause trouble later, we tell you about it while it is still easy to change.
3
Sign, witness and register
Signing an LPA has to happen in a set order, and getting it wrong is the usual reason one gets rejected. We tell you who signs what and when, then guide you through registering it.
What does it cost?
Two separate things to pay for: our fee for preparing and checking the documents, and a registration fee that goes to the Office of the Public Guardian.
Our fees
- £120. One LPA.
- £240. Both types for one person.
- £480. A couple, both types each.
Every price includes VAT, and there is nothing else to pay us.
What it costs to leave it
If you lose capacity without an LPA, nobody can simply step in. Someone has to apply to the Court of Protection to be made your deputy.
That application costs £432, and a deputy then pays up to £320 in supervision fees every year. It is slower and more limited than the LPA would have been, and you get no say in who is appointed.
The Office of the Public Guardian then charges £92 to register each LPA, and you pay that straight to them. You may pay less: the fee drops to £46 if you earn under £12,000 a year, and certain benefits remove it altogether. We show you which form to use.
What is not included?
- Print & Post (coming soon). If you don't have a printer we can send the documents to you. For now your LPA arrives as a PDF for you to print. An LPA has to be signed in wet ink on one original document, so printing it is a real step, not a formality.
- Business LPAs. If you run a business and want different attorneys looking after it, this service is not the right one. Please get in touch before you start.
- England and Wales only. An LPA made here is binding in England and Wales. It does not cover assets or decisions elsewhere.
Who checks your documents?
A solicitor, before you sign anything. You can check both of them on the public register.
Introducing our team
Kate Scott
Solicitor of England and Wales, specialising in wills, trusts, lasting powers of attorney and lifetime tax planning.
Already have an LPA?
An LPA can be attacked in much the same way a will can. Someone can object while it is being registered, or argue years later that you did not really understand it, or that somebody talked you into it. By then you may not be able to answer for yourself.
With Capacity Vault's Capacity Snapshot you can get a digital snapshot of your Mental Capacity at the time you make your LPA. The stronger evidence you have, the less chance of a successful challenge.
Frequently asked questions
Who can make an LPA?
Anyone aged 18 or over who has the mental capacity to make it. You do not have to live in the UK or be a British citizen, but the LPA only works for decisions and assets in England and Wales. Our sister site has a fuller guide to what a lasting power of attorney is.
Can I make an LPA for somebody else?
No. An LPA can only be made by the person it belongs to, and only while that person still has the mental capacity to make it. You can help someone find the service and sit with them while they use it, but the answers, the reading and the signature have to be theirs.
That applies to our pairing option too. Two people can make their LPAs together, and most couples do, but each person enters their own answers, reads their own documents and signs for themselves. One of you cannot do it for the other.
If capacity has already gone, an LPA is no longer possible for that person and an application to the Court of Protection is the route instead.
Who can I appoint as my attorney?
Any individual aged 18 or over. Most people choose a spouse or partner, an adult child, or a close friend. For a property and financial affairs LPA there is one extra rule: your attorney must not be bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order. There is more on this in the guides to what an attorney is and choosing your attorneys.
Can I appoint more than one attorney?
Yes, and most people do. You decide whether they have to agree every decision together, which the law calls acting jointly, or whether any one of them can act alone, which is called acting jointly and severally. The questionnaire explains the trade-off. If you say nothing, the law treats them as appointed jointly.
What is a certificate provider?
Someone independent who signs your LPA to confirm you understand it and that nobody has pressured you into it. Every LPA needs one. They cannot be one of your attorneys. We tell you who is allowed to do it and what they are agreeing to.
How long does it take?
The questionnaire takes most people well under an hour. Registration is the slow part: the Office of the Public Guardian says 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes in the application. Mistakes are common, which is the main reason we check the documents first.
Can I use my LPA straight away?
Not until it is registered. An LPA that has not been registered gives your attorneys no authority at all. Once a property and financial affairs LPA is registered your attorneys can act with your permission. A health and welfare LPA can only be used once you cannot make the decision yourself.
Can I change my mind later?
Yes. You can cancel an LPA at any time while you still have the mental capacity to do so. That is one reason not to put it off.
Do I need a will as well?
Yes, and the two do different jobs. An LPA covers decisions while you are alive. A will covers what happens to your estate after you die. Neither one does the other's work. There is a fuller comparison of an LPA against a will.
Where can I read more about LPAs?
Our sister site Make a Will, run by the same company, keeps a set of plain-English guides:
- What is a lasting power of attorney?
- Do I need an LPA?
- How do I make an LPA?
- Choosing your attorneys
- LPA or will: what is the difference?
On this site, Parliament passes Bill enabling digital LPAs covers the law that allows LPAs to be made digitally.
What if I am worried about my own capacity?
Tell us before you start. You can only make an LPA while you still have capacity, so this is worth looking at properly rather than hoping. If capacity has already gone, an LPA is no longer possible and a Court of Protection application is the route instead.
Put it in place while it is still easy
An LPA is only available to you while you can still make your own decisions. Answer the questions, let a solicitor check them, and have it done.
This page is general information about lasting powers of attorney and is not legal advice for your own situation. If your circumstances are complicated, please get in touch before you start.