Which type of LPA do you need?

There are two lasting powers of attorney, and they do not overlap. One covers your money and your property. The other covers your medical treatment and where you live. Neither stands in for the other, which is why most people who make one make both.

They are separate documents. Each is signed separately, registered separately, and carries its own fee. They also become usable at different moments, and that is the part people most often get wrong.

What does each one cover?

Both come from section 9 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which lets you give someone authority over your personal welfare, your property and affairs, or both.

Property and financial affairs

Your attorney can run your bank accounts, pay your bills, collect your pension and benefits, and deal with HMRC and the utility companies. They can manage your investments and, if it comes to it, sell your home to pay for your care.

Two limits are worth knowing. Your attorney cannot make a will for you: section 18(1)(i) reserves the execution for P of a will to the Court of Protection. And their power to give your money away is narrow. Under section 12 gifts are confined to customary occasions, such as a birthday or a wedding, and to charities you already gave to. Even then the value must not be unreasonable having regard to all the circumstances and, in particular, the size of the donor’s estate.

Health and welfare

Your attorney can agree or refuse medical treatment, talk to your doctors about your medication, decide where you live, and settle the shape of your daily care.

You can also give them authority over life-sustaining treatment, but only if you say so in the document itself. Section 11(8)(a) is explicit that the LPA does not authorise the giving or refusing of consent to the carrying out or continuation of life-sustaining treatment, unless the instrument contains express provision to that effect. It is a box you tick when you make the LPA, and it is easy to miss.

The difference that catches people out

A property and financial affairs LPA can be used while you still have capacity, if you choose to allow it when you make it. Plenty of people do, because it is useful long before capacity is ever in doubt. Hearing on the telephone gets harder. So does remembering passwords, or getting to a branch.

A health and welfare LPA can never work that way. It cannot be used at all while you can still make the decision yourself. Section 11(7)(a) says the authority does not extend to making such decisions in circumstances other than those where P lacks, or the donee reasonably believes that P lacks, capacity.

So the financial one is a tool you can start using whenever it suits you. The medical one sits dormant, sometimes for decades, and only wakes up on the worst day of your life.

Why one on its own leaves a gap

Most people who make only one make the financial one. The need feels more concrete, and the horror stories are about frozen accounts.

But a financial LPA gives your attorney no say at all in your treatment or your care. Those decisions are made by the professionals responsible for you, under the best interests process in section 4. Your family should be consulted: section 4(7) requires the decision-maker to take into account the views of anyone engaged in caring for the person or interested in his welfare. Being consulted is not the same as deciding. Your attorney could end up paying, from your money, for care they argued against.

The reverse gap is worse. A welfare LPA alone lets your attorney choose your care home but gives them no authority over the money to pay for it. Without a financial LPA, someone has to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed your deputy under section 16. That is slow and expensive, and the supervision continues for as long as the deputyship does.

Our will service, Make a Will, has a fuller account of what happens when there is no LPA at all, including what a deputyship application involves.

The deadline is capacity, not age

You can only make an LPA while you still have the mental capacity to make it. Section 9(2)(c) requires that the donor had capacity to execute it. Once capacity has gone the door is shut, and no amount of family agreement reopens it. The deputyship route is all that is left.

This is why the question is not how old you are. Capacity can go suddenly, through a stroke, an accident or a sudden illness, and it can go at any age. Our guide to what mental capacity means sets out the two-stage test the law actually applies. What to do if you are worried about someone covers the position once capacity is already in doubt.

It is also why evidence matters. An LPA can be challenged after the event, by a relative who disagrees with it or by an institution asked to rely on it. The question then is whether you had capacity on the day you signed, which is a question about a moment that has passed. A Capacity Snapshot records your capacity at the time you make the document, so the answer exists before anyone needs it.

What it costs and how long it takes

Each LPA is registered separately with the Office of the Public Guardian, and each carries its own fee. Registering one costs £92. GOV.UK says it takes 8 to 10 weeks to register an LPA if there are no mistakes in the application. Reductions and exemptions are available on a low income or on certain benefits.

Our own fee is £120 per LPA including VAT, or £240 for both types, with a solicitor checking your documents before you sign. The registration fee is separate and goes to the Office of the Public Guardian, not to us.

One point on timing. Because registration takes a couple of months, an LPA made in a hurry is rarely ready when it is needed. It is a document to make while nothing is wrong.

A change that has not happened yet

The Powers of Attorney Act 2023 will change how LPAs are made and registered, and is intended to bring the paper process online. That part of it is not in force. Under section 3(5) of that Act it begins only when the Lord Chancellor makes regulations, and no such regulations have been made. As at 11 September 2026 the Act’s amendments to the Mental Capacity Act were still listed as changes yet to be applied, and the process described on this page is the one in force.

Make a lasting power of attorney

This article is for general information and is not legal advice. Capacity Vault records evidence of capacity. It is not a doctor’s assessment. If you are deciding what powers to give your attorneys, or you are worried that capacity may already be slipping, please get in touch.

Sources

• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 9 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 4 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 11 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 12 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 16 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, section 18 on legislation.gov.uk
• Mental Capacity Act 2005, Schedule 1 on legislation.gov.uk
• Powers of Attorney Act 2023, section 3 on legislation.gov.uk
• Register a lasting power of attorney on GOV.UK
• Make a lasting power of attorney on GOV.UK