Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA): Types, Registration & OPG

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) lets you appoint someone you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you are ever unable to make them yourself. In England and Wales it must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used.

What a Lasting Power of Attorney Does

A lasting power of attorney is a legal document, created under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, that lets you (the donor) appoint one or more people you trust (your attorneys) to make decisions on your behalf if you are ever unable to make them yourself. It applies in England and Wales only; Scotland and Northern Ireland use different legal instruments, covered below. An LPA can only be made while you still have the mental capacity to understand what you are signing, so it needs to be put in place in advance, not after a diagnosis or health crisis has already taken hold. Once capacity is lost, it is too late to make one, and the only remaining route is a Court of Protection application. Advice charities such as Age UK and MoneyHelper both recommend making an LPA well before it is likely to be needed, while the choice of attorneys and instructions can still be discussed and understood.

The Two Types of LPA

There are two entirely separate LPAs, covering different kinds of decisions, and most people are advised to consider making both.

You can make one type, the other, or both, and each is registered and used separately. Many people make both at the same time, often naming the same attorneys, so that both financial and welfare decisions are covered if capacity is ever lost. A property and financial affairs LPA is often the more urgent of the two, since bank accounts and bills cannot simply be paused while a family waits for a court process.

Registering an LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian

An LPA has no legal effect until it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), even after it has been signed by the donor, the attorneys, and a certificate provider. Registration currently carries an OPG registration fee of £92 per LPA, so registering both types costs £184 in total; this fee rose from £82 per LPA for applications received from 17 November 2025. A reduced fee (for incomes under £12,000) or a full exemption (on certain means-tested benefits) may apply, and gov.uk sets out the current fee and any exemptions in full. Registration can be started by the donor or by an attorney, commonly takes several weeks to process, and any errors or missing signatures in the paperwork can cause delays. Because of this, it is common practice to register an LPA soon after it is signed rather than waiting until it is actually needed.

Choosing Your Attorneys

You can appoint one attorney, or several. Where you appoint more than one, you choose how they must act: jointly, meaning every decision needs all attorneys to agree, or jointly and severally, meaning each attorney can act alone or together, which is more flexible if one attorney is ever unavailable. A mixture is also possible, requiring some decisions to be joint and allowing others to be made independently. You can also name replacement attorneys, who step in only if an original attorney dies, loses capacity themselves, or otherwise cannot continue to act. Getting this structure right at the outset matters, since a purely joint LPA becomes unworkable the moment one joint attorney can no longer act, unless a replacement was named in advance.

Older Enduring Powers of Attorney

LPAs replaced an earlier instrument, the enduring power of attorney (EPA), for new powers made from 1 October 2007 onwards. An EPA made and signed before that date remains valid for property and financial decisions and does not need to be replaced with an LPA, although it still has to be registered with the OPG once the donor is losing or has lost mental capacity, rather than in advance. EPAs never covered health and welfare decisions, so anyone relying on an older EPA who also wants a say over care and medical decisions still needs a separate health and welfare LPA.

If You Lose Capacity Without an LPA: The Court of Protection

If you lose mental capacity without an LPA, or a still-valid EPA, in place, nobody, not even a spouse or an adult child, automatically gains the legal authority to manage your affairs. Instead, someone must apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as a deputy, a court-supervised role that is generally slower to obtain, more expensive, and more closely supervised on an ongoing basis than acting under an LPA. See our guide to deputyship and the Court of Protection for how that process works and what a deputy can and cannot do.

Scotland and Northern Ireland: Different Systems

Powers of attorney are not the same across the UK, and an England and Wales LPA has no effect in the other two nations. Scotland does not use LPAs at all; instead, under the Adults with Incapacity (Scotland) Act 2000, it has a Continuing Power of Attorney for property and financial affairs and a separate Welfare Power of Attorney, registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland). See our guide to power of attorney in Scotland. Northern Ireland has not introduced LPAs either; it still uses the enduring power of attorney, registered only once the donor is losing capacity. See our guide to power of attorney in Northern Ireland.

Making an LPA

You do not need a solicitor to make an LPA, and nothing in this article can draft one for you. The official route is the government's own service at gov.uk/power-of-attorney, which lets you make an LPA online or on paper, guides you through choosing attorneys and a certificate provider, and takes you through OPG registration. Many people choose to involve a solicitor anyway, particularly where family circumstances are complicated or a health and welfare LPA needs to authorise life-sustaining treatment decisions specifically. Advice charities such as Age UK and MoneyHelper also publish free, independent guidance on the choices involved.

This article is general information about lasting powers of attorney in England and Wales, not legal advice, and it is not a substitute for making one. Whether an LPA suits your circumstances, and how to structure your attorneys and replacements, depends on your personal situation. Use the official gov.uk service to make an LPA, or take advice from a solicitor, Age UK, or Citizens Advice if your situation is complex.

For the wider picture of wills, probate, and inheritance across the UK, see our UK wills and probate hub, part of our broader guide to United Kingdom law.