Understanding Lasting Power of Attorney

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that gives another another person the authority to make certain decisions on your behalf. The person making the LPA is called the donor and the person being given the authority is the attorney.

The decisions someone can make for another person depends on the type of Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) that has been set up.

There are Property and Financial Affairs LPAs and Health and Welfare LPAs. You can choose to prepare just one or both types.

Property and Financial Affairs LPA

Allows your attorney to deal with any decisions relating to your property or financial affairs. This can cover paying bills, dealing with the bank, collecting benefits, selling your house, or giving instructions to solicitors. This type of Lasting Power of Attorney is used if you are not able to manage your financial affairs. However, with your permission, it can be used at any time after it's registered even if you can still make your own decisions but just need some support.

Health and Welfare LPA

Allows your attorney to make decisions about treatment, care, medication, where you live, the care home you live in, and can even whether you would like your attorney to make decisions relating to life sustaining treatment or not. This type of Lasting Power of Attorney can only be used when you’re unable to make your own decisions.

The attorney is the person you choose to make decisions on your behalf. They should be trustworthy, be competent to make decisions and you should have complete confidence that they will always act in your best interests.

If you appoint more than one attorney, you can appoint them to act ‘independently’, ‘jointly’ (to agree and act together on all matters) or ‘jointly and severally’ (where they can make decisions together or on their own). You can even instruct your attorneys to act in different ways on different matters.

In order for an LPA to be valid it must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).

Once registered, Financial and Property Affairs LPAs can be used straightaway. Health and Welfare LPAs can only be used when you don't have the mental capacity to make your own decisions.

If you can no longer make your own decisions (this is often called losing capacity) then it may be necessary for an application to be made to the Court of Protection so they can appoint a suitable person to make decisions on your behalf. This person is known as a Deputy.

You can prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney without the help of a solicitor. To do this, you will need to download the LPA forms from the Office of the Public Guardian website.

Most solicitors will offer you an initial consultation free of charge and then tell you how much the whole process will cost.

If you are preparing the LPA yourself the Office of the Public Guardian will charge for registering it. You may not have to pay the full cost if you have a low income or are exempt because you receive certain benefits. See LPA fees, reductions and exemptions on the government website.