Why Young Adults Should Consider an LPA

I know what you're picturing when you hear Lasting Power of Attorney, because it sounds like something Gran sorts out alongside the will and the funeral plan. I thought the same thing until about three years ago.

Here's what nobody tells you. The day your child turns 18, you lose every automatic right to step in for them, regardless of the fact that you drove them to their GCSE exams last year or that they still come home with a bin bag of laundry every other weekend. The law sees an 18-year-old as a standalone adult with no exceptions.

So who am I really talking to here? Parents, grandparents, and people who've been around long enough to know that bad things happen without warning. The young adults in your life, your sons, daughters, and grandchildren, are not going to look this up themselves because they're at university, starting new jobs, or off somewhere in Thailand where worst-case planning is dead last on their list. I get that, but a 22-year-old has the same legal need for this document as someone in their seventies and the only difference is nobody's told them.

An LPA lets you name someone you trust to make decisions for you if you ever can't make them yourself. People hear that and think dementia, which is understandable, but it also covers being unconscious after a car crash, sedated in intensive care, or going through a mental health crisis so severe you can't process what's happening around you, all of which happen to young people on a regular basis.

There are two types to consider. A Property and Financial Affairs LPA handles money, covering bank accounts, rent, mortgage, tax, and bills, while a Health and Welfare LPA covers medical treatment, where you live, care arrangements, and daily wellbeing including whether your attorney has authority over life-sustaining treatment decisions. Heavy stuff, but someone has to think about it.

You can make one or both, though I'd say do both because a health crisis almost always drags finances into the picture whether you planned for that or not.

The part that catches people off guard is that you can only create an LPA while you still have mental capacity to understand what it is. Once that capacity is gone, the door shuts with no way to do it retrospectively, no exceptions, no workarounds, and no alternatives.

People assume losing mental capacity is something that happens to older people, but the numbers say otherwise and they're quite uncomfortable to read.

Road accidents. Around 1,600 people die on UK roads each year and roughly 25,000 suffer serious injuries, with a big chunk of those under 30. One bad head injury and someone can't communicate for weeks, months, or permanently in some cases.

Strokes. The average stroke patient is over 70, but strokes hit people in their twenties and thirties too, with the Stroke Association putting UK childhood strokes at about 400 a year. Young adult strokes are far more common than most families have any idea.

Mental health crises. A severe psychotic episode or acute bipolar phase can temporarily strip someone of the ability to make informed choices about money or treatment, and while it passes, the gap is very real during that time.

Sporting injuries. Rugby, cycling, horse riding, and skiing all carry real risk because traumatic brain injuries affect young active people at a higher rate than the general population, yet nobody mentions this until it lands in their family.

Sudden illness. Meningitis, encephalitis, and cardiac arrest don't check your date of birth before they show up.

Each of these individually is unlikely for any one person, but across the country they happen every single day, which means the question isn't whether it will happen to your child but whether they'd be protected if it did.

This is the part that makes parents go quiet, so picture it clearly. Your 25-year-old son is in a serious crash and ends up in intensive care, but you can't walk into his bank and pay his rent, can't phone his employer about sick pay, and can't direct his medical care either. The clinical team will decide what's in his best interests and while they'll hear what you think, they don't have to listen because he's a legal adult and you've got no standing.

I wish someone had spelled this out for me years ago.

Marriage doesn't fix it either, because a marriage certificate is not a power of attorney. Joint bank accounts cover shared finances well enough, but they won't touch sole accounts, pensions, investments, or any health matter whatsoever.

Without an LPA, the only route is the Court of Protection, where a family member applies to become a "deputy," which is essentially a court-appointed attorney but with heavier oversight, bigger costs, and zero say from you about who gets the role.

That application typically takes three to six months, and while it crawls along, nobody can legally touch the person's finances or make formal welfare decisions beyond what the medical team considers clinically necessary. Rent falls behind, direct debits bounce, student loan payments get missed, and the emotional weight of the whole thing gets buried under paperwork you shouldn't have to deal with.

This one keeps me up at night a bit, so consider this situation. Your daughter is 20, in her second year at university, with a student bank account, maintenance loan, tenancy agreement on a shared house, and a weekend job at a cafe, when she gets seriously ill with viral encephalitis and within days she's in hospital unable to manage her own affairs.

Her rent is due, her phone bill needs paying, the university needs telling, and her employer needs to know she won't be in, all on top of the fact that you want a proper say in her medical treatment, which of course you do.

Without an LPA you can do almost none of that through official channels. The bank won't let you near her account, her university might share limited information but they're not required to, and doctors will talk to you as next of kin but your wishes don't bind them. You're standing outside your own child's life watching things fall apart and there's no legal route to step in.

Had she made an LPA before any of this happened, the picture would be totally different. Her attorney, probably you, could have acted from day one with bills sorted, the university informed, and a genuine voice in medical decisions straight away. I think about this every time I see students moving into halls in September, because hundreds of thousands of young adults have parents who just lost all legal authority overnight and barely anyone notices.

Registering an LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £92 per document, meaning both types together come to £184. If your income is below 12,000 a year you pay half, and certain means-tested benefits waive the fee entirely, so loads of young adults, especially students or people just starting work, will qualify for the discount or the full exemption.

Now compare that to the alternative. A Court of Protection deputyship application costs £371 in court fees alone, the assessment fee adds £385, solicitor costs run somewhere between 2,000 and £5,000 for a standard case, and then annual supervision fees of 35 to £320 follow for as long as the deputyship lasts. First-year costs can blow past £5,000 without much effort and the bills keep coming after that.

There's a control problem on top of the money too, because with an LPA you choose your attorney whereas with a deputyship the court decides. Usually it'll be a family member but not always, since the court can appoint a professional deputy, someone your family has never met, if it thinks that's more appropriate. By that point the person who needed the LPA doesn't have capacity to object to any of it.

So it comes down to £92 versus thousands, and your choice of attorney versus whatever the court decides, which makes it genuinely hard to think of a legal document that offers better value for a young person. I paid more for my last MOT.

Property and Financial Affairs LPA

This covers all financial matters including bank accounts, savings, investments, property, bills, tax, pensions, and benefits. Once the OPG registers this one, your attorney can use it straight away with your permission, even while you still have full capacity, which surprises most people. If you're stuck abroad for months or recovering from surgery and can't get to a branch, your attorney keeps your finances running without fuss.

You set the boundaries yourself, so for example your attorney might be able to pay bills and handle everyday banking but need your approval before selling property, and it's easy to build that restriction in.

Health and Welfare LPA

This covers medical treatment, care plans, diet, daily routine, and where you live. Unlike the financial version, this one only activates when you lack capacity to make a particular decision, and if you can still decide for yourself your attorney has no power to override you, which is a firm line that doesn't bend.

The single biggest decision in this LPA is whether your attorney can make calls on life-sustaining treatment, and I won't pretend there's a tidy answer to that question. Some people hand over the authority while others leave it with doctors, and both are valid, but you do need to actually think about it rather than skipping past.

For young adults, both types matter because the financial one keeps rent paid and lights on while the health and welfare one puts someone who actually knows them and their values in the room when doctors are weighing up treatment options, not a stranger or a hospital administrator but someone who knows what they'd want.

Bringing this up with a 22-year-old is awkward, I know, because they feel bulletproof and planning for incapacity sounds morbid and a bit mad. I've had this conversation with my own kids and the eye-rolling was spectacular, but here's what actually works in my experience at least.

Treat it as admin, not doom. An LPA belongs in the same mental category as registering with a GP, getting contents insurance, and setting up a workplace pension, because it's not about expecting the worst but rather a box that grown-ups tick and nothing more dramatic than that.

Point to something real. Most families know someone who's been in a bad accident or had a sudden illness, so you don't need to be grim about it. Just mention that if something happened and they ended up in hospital, you wouldn't be able to access their bank account or have any formal say in their medical care without this paperwork done, which usually gets their attention.

Pay for it. At £92 per LPA it's a genuinely useful present, and if they qualify for the reduced fee it's even less, making it a solid birthday gift or graduation present that kills the money objection in one go.

Do yours at the same time. If you're making or updating your own LPAs, get them to sit down and go through it alongside you, turning it into a family admin afternoon instead of a lecture, which is much less painful.

Then drop it. Share the information, explain why it matters, and let them sit with it, because pressuring someone into signing a legal document never ends well. Plant the seed and make it easy for them when they're ready.

Our online LPA service keeps the whole thing simple even if you've never touched a legal document before, because you answer plain-English questions and we produce completed LPA forms ready for signing and registration with the Office of the Public Guardian.

Both types are covered, so you pick your attorneys and replacement attorneys, add whatever restrictions or preferences you want, and name a certificate provider, which is the independent person who confirms you understand what you're signing. Every step gets explained as you go through it so no legal background is needed at all.

For young adults it tends to be especially quick because the choices are usually straightforward, with most naming a parent or two as attorneys and maybe a sibling or close friend as backup, meaning the whole process takes well under an hour.

After that the forms need signing in a specific order, with the donor going first, then the certificate provider, and then the attorneys, before you post them to the OPG with the registration fee, and we walk you through that part as well.

The honest answer is the day they turn 18, even if hardly anyone does it then, because in practice most people don't get round to it until decades later and that gap carries genuine risk the entire time.

If your child is about to head off to university, that's a natural moment since they'll be living on their own for the first time, handling their own money, registered with a new GP, and legally beyond your reach, so an LPA sorted before they leave means you can act if you ever need to. I really wish I'd known this when mine went.

Other good moments include starting a first job, moving into rented accommodation, opening a bank account, going travelling, buying a car, or simply turning 18. None of these feel dramatic and that's the point, because an LPA is a quiet practical document that sits in a drawer doing absolutely nothing until the day it's needed, and on that day it's worth more than almost any other piece of paper the family owns.

The window for making one stays open as long as you have mental capacity, and nobody gets advance warning of when that window closes, so the safest time is always right now.

Nobody wants to picture their child in a hospital bed, unable to speak or decide anything for themselves, and I don't either. But if that day comes, having an LPA means you can step in straight away, whereas not having one means months in the Court of Protection while rent goes unpaid and doctors make treatment decisions without your formal involvement. I've watched a family go through that and it was awful.

Think of it the way you think about a seatbelt, home insurance, or registering with a dentist, because you hope you never need it but if you do you'll be more grateful than you can put into words that it was already sorted.

Got adult children or grandchildren without LPAs in place? Send them this article, or better yet sit down with them and do it together, and if you'd like help getting started our online service at Keystone Estate Planning walks you through it step by step.

This article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Keystone Estate Planning is an estate planning service, not a law firm. The information provided is based on the law in England and Wales as of the date of publication and may be subject to change. OPG registration fees quoted (£92 per LPA) are correct at the time of writing but may be updated by the Office of the Public Guardian. For advice specific to your personal circumstances, you should consult a qualified legal professional.