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Protects — your voice
A Lasting Power of Attorney lets people you trust make decisions for you if illness or an accident ever means you can't make them yourself. Without one, nobody — not even your husband, wife or children — has automatic authority to step in. We prepare both types and handle registration from start to finish.
Most people assume their next of kin can simply take over if the worst happens — speak to the bank, deal with the pension, decide about care. They can't. Marriage gives no such authority, and neither does being someone's child. Accounts in your sole name, your pensions, your investments and even decisions about your medical treatment all sit beyond your family's reach unless you've appointed them formally — or a court does it for you, slowly and expensively, after the event.
An LPA is how you appoint them formally, while you still can.
Property and financial affairs. Your attorneys can deal with banks, pay bills, manage investments and pensions, and if necessary sell property. You choose whether it can be used, with your consent, while you still have capacity — useful if mobility rather than capacity becomes the problem — or only if capacity is lost.
Health and welfare. Covers where you live, day-to-day care, and medical decisions. You decide in the document itself whether your attorneys can consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment on your behalf. This one can only ever be used once you lack capacity to decide for yourself.
They're separate documents with potentially different attorneys — the right person to manage money is not always the right person to sit with doctors. We help you think that through properly.
You can appoint one attorney or several, and replacements in case an attorney can't act when the time comes. Multiple attorneys can be required to act together on everything, together on some decisions only, or each able to act alone. Each arrangement has consequences — acting together is a safeguard but can grind to a halt if one attorney is abroad or unwell; acting alone is flexible but places full trust in each person individually. You can also write preferences and binding instructions into the document. This is where experienced drafting earns its keep: instructions that contradict the rest of the LPA are a common reason registrations are rejected.
An LPA must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used. Registration currently takes several months, and the fee is £82 per document — with reductions or exemptions if you're on a low income or certain benefits. We prepare the documents, manage signing and certification in the right order, and submit the registration, so nothing bounces back on a technicality.
Some people plan to "sort it if it's ever needed". By the time it's needed, it's too late to make one — and your family faces a Court of Protection deputyship instead: a longer, considerably more expensive process with ongoing supervision, in which the court, not you, chooses who acts.
EPAs made and signed before October 2007 can still be valid, but they only cover property and finances — there is no health and welfare version. If yours dates from that era, it's worth a review: many people pair an old EPA with a new health and welfare LPA, or replace the whole arrangement so everything works the same way. We'll look at what you have as part of the free consultation.
If you own or run a business, ask what happens to it the day you can't act — who signs, who pays wages, who deals with the bank. A personal LPA is often the wrong instrument for that, and a separate business LPA may be needed. There's more on our business estate planning page.
Free consultation, online or at your home. Fixed fee agreed in writing before any work begins.
Lasting Powers of Attorney
No, and this is the costliest myth in this whole field. Your spouse has no automatic right to operate accounts in your sole name, deal with your pension, or make your medical decisions. Even jointly held money can become difficult to access once a bank learns one holder has lost capacity. An LPA is what gives your spouse the authority everyone assumes they already have.
No. Making an LPA changes nothing while you have capacity — you remain fully in charge of your own affairs. A financial LPA can only be used with your consent while you're able to give it, and a health and welfare LPA can't be used at all until you can't decide for yourself. It's a parachute, not a handover.
A family member must apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy. It routinely takes many months, costs far more than an LPA ever would, involves ongoing supervision and annual reporting, and the court decides who is appointed. Meanwhile bills, care decisions and the person's affairs sit in limbo. Almost every deputyship we hear about began with "we always meant to do the LPAs".
Yes. Attorneys are legally bound to act in your best interests, keep your money separate from their own, and keep records. The Office of the Public Guardian investigates concerns and can remove attorneys. Choosing trustworthy people remains the best protection — and the certificate provider stage of making an LPA exists precisely to confirm you understand what you're granting and aren't being pressured.
Yes. A will only speaks after death; it's no help at all if you're alive but unable to act. The two documents cover the two different risks, which is why we'd always discuss them together. Most couples deal with wills and both LPAs each in one exercise.