Lasting power of attorney¶

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document by which one person — the donor — authorises one or more others — attorneys — to make decisions on their behalf if they later lose mental capacity. It is set up while the donor still has capacity, sits dormant until needed, and is the cheapest, fastest, and most flexible alternative to the Court of Protection route. Without one in place, a family who needs to act for an incapacitated relative is locked into a court application that takes months and costs significantly more. [source: gov-uk/power-of-attorney-2026-04-30.html]

This guide covers the three different UK regimes — the LPA in England and Wales, Continuing and Welfare Powers of Attorney in Scotland, the Enduring Power of Attorney in Northern Ireland — and the practical mechanics of getting one set up.

If you can only do one thing today: write down (a) who you would trust to manage your money if you could not do it yourself, and (b) who you would trust to make medical and care decisions for you. They can be the same person or different people. That is the substantive choice; everything else in this guide is process.

What an LPA is and what it covers¶

An LPA is an authority the donor grants. The "attorney" is the person who holds the authority — not necessarily a lawyer. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 governs LPAs in England and Wales; the Act's five statutory principles (presumption of capacity, support to decide, the right to make unwise decisions, best-interests, and the least-restrictive option) apply to every decision made under an LPA.

There are two separate documents in England and Wales:

Property and Financial Affairs LPA — covers bank accounts, bills, property, investments, and tax. By default the attorney can use it as soon as it is registered, with the donor's permission, even before the donor loses capacity. The donor can restrict it to come into effect only on loss of capacity by ticking the relevant box on the form.
Health and Welfare LPA — covers medical treatment, care, and where the donor lives. It can only be used once the donor has lost capacity. Until then it sits dormant.

Most people set up both. Each is registered separately and incurs its own fee. [source: gov-uk/power-of-attorney-2026-04-30.html]

Costs and registration¶

Item	England & Wales	Scotland	Northern Ireland
Registration fee per document	£92	£99	£180
Indicative solicitor fee	£300–£600 per LPA	£300–£600 per PoA	£200–£500
Online service (where available)	£100–£200 + registration	not widely available	not widely available
[source: gov-uk/power-of-attorney-2026-04-30.html] [source: mygov-scot/power-of-attorney-2026-05-02.html] [source: nidirect/managing-affairs-enduring-power-attorney-2026-05-02.html]

Registration fees are set by the relevant authority and change from time to time; check the current figure on the source page before submitting. Solicitor fees vary by firm and complexity. Most people budget for two registration fees plus one professional fee; many solicitors discount the second document if both are instructed together. LPA

Fee help in England and Wales: the Office of the Public Guardian offers a 50% reduction if the donor's gross annual income is under £12,000 and a full exemption for donors on certain means-tested benefits. The exemption rules for Universal Credit changed in early 2026 — the donor is now assessed for fee remission rather than receiving an automatic exemption, so check the current OPG fee guidance before assuming. [source: gov-uk/power-of-attorney-2026-04-30.html]

England and Wales: setting up an LPA¶

The mechanics are the same whether the donor uses the paper forms or the digital "Make and register your LPA" service. Either route is equally valid. The paper forms (LP1F for Property and Financial Affairs, LP1H for Health and Welfare) are downloadable from gov.uk; the digital route requires identity verification and steers the donor through the same questions.

Step 1 — Choose the attorneys. At least one, often two or three. Each must be aged 18 or over and have capacity. Family members, friends, or professionals all qualify; family is the default and the cheapest.

Step 2 — Decide how multiple attorneys act together. Three options:

Jointly: every attorney must agree on every decision. Slower, safer, and the LPA fails entirely if any one attorney becomes unable to act.
Jointly and severally: any one attorney can act alone. Faster and more resilient, requires more trust.
Mixed: jointly for specified decisions (e.g. selling the home), severally for everything else.

Always name a replacement attorney for the case where the original is unwilling or unable to act when the time comes.

Step 3 — Decide preferences and instructions.

Preferences are non-binding wishes ("I would prefer to remain in my home as long as is safe").
Instructions are binding constraints ("My attorneys must obtain a second medical opinion before consenting to surgery"). Instructions that contradict the law or are practically impossible will invalidate the LPA, so they should be drafted carefully.

Step 4 — Choose a certificate provider. Someone independent of both donor and attorneys who confirms in writing that the donor understands the LPA and is not being pressured. The provider must be either someone who has known the donor personally for at least 2 years, or a person with relevant professional skill (GP, solicitor, social worker). Family members of the donor or any attorney are excluded — including spouses, civil partners, in-laws, and step-relatives.

Step 5 — Sign in the correct order. Donor signs first (witnessed); certificate provider signs next; each attorney signs last (each witness must witness the attorney they are attesting). Out-of-order signing invalidates the LPA. The form sets out the order and the witness rules in detail.

Step 6 — Register with the OPG. Send the completed form and the £92 fee to the Office of the Public Guardian. Either the donor or any attorney can register; both should not register simultaneously. The OPG checks the form, contacts the people named to be notified (up to 5, optional) and the certificate provider, and registers the document. Paper applications currently take around 20 weeks; digital applications are typically faster but processing times vary as the digital service matures. [source: gov-uk/power-of-attorney-2026-04-30.html]

Step 7 — Store and share access. The OPG returns the registered original. Banks and care providers will accept either a certified copy or — increasingly — an access code issued through the gov.uk "Use a lasting power of attorney" online service, which lets the attorney share live confirmation of the LPA with any organisation that needs it. Keep the original somewhere safe and tell the attorneys where it is. Not in a bank safe deposit box, which can be sealed when the donor loses capacity.

Scotland: Continuing and Welfare Powers of Attorney¶

Scotland operates under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000. The structural choice is similar but the labels are different:

Continuing Power of Attorney — the financial equivalent. Can take effect immediately or on incapacity, depending on what the granter (Scottish term for the donor) specifies.
Welfare Power of Attorney — the health and welfare equivalent. Only takes effect once the granter has lost capacity.

Both are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian for Scotland (a different body from its English namesake), and the registration fee is currently £99. The granter signs in front of a solicitor or a doctor, who then certifies that the granter understood the document and was not pressured. There is no separate certificate provider role as there is in England. [source: mygov-scot/power-of-attorney-2026-05-02.html]

An English LPA does not automatically work in Scotland and vice versa. Cross-border recognition is possible in some circumstances but is unreliable in practice; the safer course for someone with property or strong ties in both jurisdictions is to set up parallel documents in each. [source: mygov-scot/power-of-attorney-2026-05-02.html]

Northern Ireland: Enduring Power of Attorney¶

Northern Ireland still uses the older Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) model for financial matters, governed by common law and the Powers of Attorney (Northern Ireland) Order 1987. An EPA must be registered with the Office of Care and Protection (part of the High Court of Justice in Northern Ireland) once the donor becomes, or is becoming, mentally incapable. The current registration fee is £180. [source: nidirect/managing-affairs-enduring-power-attorney-2026-05-02.html]

There is no equivalent Health and Welfare Power of Attorney in Northern Ireland. The Mental Capacity Act (Northern Ireland) 2016 has been passed but is being commenced in stages, and as of 2026 the welfare-attorney regime has not been brought into force. For health and care decisions, families currently rely on best-interests determinations involving doctors, social workers, and the Office of Care and Protection — a slower and more uncertain process. An advance statement of wishes (see advance decisions and living wills) is the strongest tool currently available to a Northern Irish donor wanting to influence later medical decisions. [source: nidirect/managing-affairs-enduring-power-attorney-2026-05-02.html]

Choosing attorneys¶

The threshold criteria are straightforward — over 18, with capacity. The judgement is about reliability, willingness, and proximity. Practical things to test before naming someone:

Will they actually do it? Tell them. Do not surprise them. The role is a real commitment.
Are they organised with money? A financial attorney will deal with banks, HMRC, pension providers, and possibly property sales. Someone who struggles with their own paperwork will struggle harder with someone else's.
Do they have the bandwidth? Adult children with young families and demanding jobs are often willing but stretched. A second attorney as backup, or jointly-and-severally appointment, takes the pressure off any one person.
Do they share the donor's values on welfare matters? A welfare attorney may be making decisions about end-of-life care. The conversation about what the donor would and would not want is uncomfortable and necessary.

Where family dynamics are difficult — adult children from different relationships, known conflict, an estate of a size that makes oversight worthwhile — a professional co-attorney (solicitor or accountant) provides neutral oversight at the cost of a fee.

The role of the attorney is not the same as the role of an executor. The attorney acts during the donor's lifetime; the executor acts after death. The same person can hold both roles, but the authorities are entirely separate and the attorney's authority ends at the moment of death — see the LPA entity for the bereavement-side detail.

What happens if there is no LPA: the Court of Protection route¶

If the donor loses capacity without an LPA in place, the family must apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order. The court appoints a deputy — usually a family member — to manage the incapacitated person's affairs under court supervision. Compared to an LPA the deputyship route is:

More expensive. Application fee £371; if the court directs a hearing, an additional £494 hearing fee; annual supervision fee from £320 to £775 depending on estate size and deputy type; solicitor costs for a straightforward application typically £500 to £2,000. [source: gov-uk/become-deputy-2026-05-02.html]
Slower. Typically 6 to 12 months from filing to the deputyship order. Bills, care decisions, and property transactions sit in limbo in the meantime.
More restrictive. The court chooses the deputy; the donor does not. The deputy reports annually, files accounts, and may need a security bond. Personal welfare deputyships are particularly hard to obtain — the court generally prefers to make individual welfare decisions rather than appoint an ongoing deputy.

A registered LPA — costing £92 and around 20 weeks — avoids all of this. The single-largest practical reason to set one up in advance is the cost and time of the alternative once capacity has been lost. [source: gov-uk/court-of-protection-2026-05-02.html]

When to revoke or replace¶

The donor can revoke an LPA at any time while they still have capacity. After capacity is lost, the document is fixed. Common reasons to revoke and replace:

The named attorney has died, separated from the donor, or fallen out of touch.
The donor's circumstances have changed — divorce, remarriage, a new child the donor wants to provide for.
The donor wants to change the way the attorneys act together (e.g. switch from jointly-and-severally to jointly for major decisions).

Revocation is a separate document — a Deed of Revocation — sent to the OPG with notification to all named attorneys. It is not enough to simply tear up the original LPA.

What this guide doesn't cover¶

General (non-lasting) powers of attorney — short-term, narrow-purpose authorities used for a specific transaction (e.g. signing a property contract while the donor is abroad). These are governed by the Powers of Attorney Act 1971 and end automatically if the donor loses capacity.
What happens to an LPA when the donor dies — covered by the LPA entity and the post-death guides.
Disputes between attorneys, or between attorneys and family — handled by the OPG initially and the Court of Protection for serious or contested matters.
Northern Ireland's eventual welfare-attorney regime under the Mental Capacity Act (NI) 2016 — being commenced in stages; the position will change as further provisions come into force.

If you're struggling, you don't have to do this alone. Samaritans (116 123, 24/7) | Cruse Bereavement Care (0808 808 1677) | Mind (0300 123 3393)

Next: Advance decisions and living wills

Last verified: 2 May 2026 against gov.uk/power-of-attorney, gov.uk/court-of-protection, gov.uk/become-deputy, mygov.scot/power-of-attorney, and nidirect EPA guidance.