Lasting power of attorney: why it matters before you need it

Most people think about a will. Far fewer think about what happens if they’re still alive but can no longer manage their own affairs.

It’s more common than we like to imagine. Around a million people in the UK are living with dementia, and the Alzheimer’s Society expects that to reach 1.4 million by 2040. A stroke, an accident or a sudden illness can have the same effect overnight, at any age.

What a lasting power of attorney is

A lasting power of attorney, or LPA, is a legal document that lets you choose people you trust, called attorneys, to make decisions for you if you can’t. There are two types:

• Property and financial affairs: paying bills, managing bank accounts and pensions, and selling your home if needed.
• Health and welfare: decisions about your care, where you live and medical treatment.

You can make one or both. It costs £92 to register each one with the Office of the Public Guardian, or £184 for both, and registration takes around 8 to 10 weeks if there are no mistakes.

What happens without one

Many families assume that as next of kin they’ll be able to step in. They can’t. Being next of kin gives you no legal right to manage someone’s money. Without an LPA, the bank can’t legally take instructions from you, even to pay a care home bill.

Instead, your family would have to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy. That means:

• a £432 application fee, plus a £100 assessment fee for a new deputy
• a supervision fee of up to £320 every year afterwards
• an average of around 24 weeks from application to court order in 2025, and some take much longer, while bills still need paying

For health and care, the picture is similar. Without a health and welfare LPA, decisions are made by the professionals involved, such as your doctor or social services. They should talk to your family, but the final decision is theirs.

An LPA is a gift to your family: it lets the people you trust look after you without asking a court for permission.

Why do it now

You can only make an LPA while you still have the mental capacity to understand it. Once capacity is lost, it’s too late, and the court route is the only option left.

Registration also takes weeks, so it can’t be rushed through in an emergency. The best time is while you’re well, with no pressure, when you can talk it through with the people you’re choosing.

Take your time and get it right

The Office of the Public Guardian checks every LPA closely, and small mistakes are one of the most common reasons for delay. More than 50,000 applications were rejected because of errors in a single year.

Some mistakes can be corrected. Others can’t, and then the LPA is rejected and can’t be used. You’d have to fill in the forms and get everyone to sign them again, and pay £46 to reapply within three months. That means more weeks of waiting, and if your health changes in the meantime, it may be too late to make a new one.

Common mistakes include:

• using initials or leaving out middle names
• signing in the wrong order, or before the right people have signed
• the wrong person witnessing a signature, such as one of your attorneys
• instructions that contradict how you’ve said your attorneys should make decisions
• using correction fluid, or crossing things out without initialling the change

Don’t rush it. Read every page before you send it, and ask someone you trust to check it too. If your situation is complicated, a solicitor can help.

What happens to an LPA when you die

An LPA only works while you’re alive. It ends automatically when you die, and from that moment your attorneys can no longer use it, even to pay a final bill. They should let the Office of the Public Guardian know.

After that, your affairs are handled by the executors named in your will. If there’s no will, the law decides who can apply to deal with your estate, usually your closest relative. So an LPA and a will do different jobs: one covers you while you’re alive, the other after you’ve gone. Most people need both, and you can choose the same people for each.

Read: what happens if you die without a will

This is general information, not legal advice. Cairn is a record-keeping tool. Sources: GOV.UK: register a lasting power of attorney, GOV.UK: deputy fees, Ministry of Justice: deputyship timings 2025, GOV.UK: when an LPA ends, Which?: 50,000 LPA applications rejected, Alzheimer’s Society facts for the media, Age UK: power of attorney, Humphries Kirk: when a relative has no power of attorney.