Do I Need a Lasting Power of Attorney?

It's almost never a planned conversation. Somebody's dad ends up in hospital after a stroke. The family tries to pay his mortgage from his bank account. The bank says no. Mum rings the pension company about releasing some funds. They say no too. Meanwhile, a consultant is planning surgery and the family wants a say in the treatment plan, but there's no legal mechanism for them to have one.

All of that could have been avoided with a single document. An LPA, set up while dad was well, would have given a named person the authority to step in the moment he couldn't manage things himself. But nobody got round to it, because nobody expected a Tuesday afternoon to change everything.

The phrase "I'll deal with that when I'm older" comes up in nearly every conversation we have about LPAs. Fair enough. At 35, the whole concept feels irrelevant. You're healthy, you're working, and the idea of someone else running your finances sounds like something from a parallel universe.

Except it isn't. Then reality intrudes. A mate's husband comes off his bike and spends three weeks in an induced coma. A woman down the road falls from a ladder and can't make her own decisions for six months. A 29-year-old develops meningitis and his parents can't access a single penny to help with his care. Nobody in any of those situations saw it coming, and not one of them had an LPA ready.

Dementia gives you months or years of warning. Everything else on that list gives you none.

Court of Protection. Three words that no family in crisis wants to hear. Without an LPA, the only way for anyone to gain legal authority over another adult's affairs is through a deputyship application to this court.

The fees start at 371 pounds just for the application. Solicitor costs on top of that push the total into the thousands for many families. Processing takes four to six months on a good run, sometimes longer. While you're waiting, the person's bills go unpaid, their investments can't be touched, and nobody can sell their house to fund care. On top of all that, the court charges annual supervision fees for as long as the deputyship continues.

An LPA registered in advance costs 82 pounds per document and is ready to use the moment it's needed. The contrast is stark.

We cannot stress this enough. Being someone's husband or wife does not give you automatic rights over their individual finances or their medical treatment. Banks refuse access to sole accounts. Investment platforms won't take instructions from a spouse. And while doctors will listen to a husband or wife's views, the clinical team makes the final treatment decisions.

Plenty of couples discover this in A&E or during a frantic phone call to the bank, and by that point the only option is the Court of Protection route described above. Having the conversation about LPAs now, while it feels unnecessary, is infinitely easier than having it from a hospital waiting room.

Different documents for different stages of life. Your Will kicks in after you die. An LPA, by contrast, protects you while you're alive but can't look after yourself. The two documents occupy completely separate territory.

Consider someone who has a stroke at 58 and survives, but needs residential care for the next decade and a half. Your Will is completely irrelevant during those fifteen years because you haven't died. Your LPA, on the other hand, is the document that determines who manages your money and who has a voice in your care every single day.

Property and Financial Affairs covers bank accounts, bills, investments, property sales, tax, pensions. Uniquely, this one can also be used while you still have capacity, with your permission, which is useful if you're physically unable to get to a bank.

Health and Welfare covers medical treatment, daily care, where you live, diet, social activity. Only activates once you've genuinely lost the capacity to decide for yourself.

We'd recommend setting up both. Health crises rarely confine themselves to one area of your life.

82 pounds per LPA for OPG registration. People on qualifying benefits can get reductions or full exemptions. Creating the LPA through an online service (ours included) adds between 50 and 150 to that total.

Now put those figures next to the deputyship alternative: 371 pounds just to file the court application, legal representation pushing the bill into the thousands, and supervision charges that arrive every year for as long as the deputyship lasts. From a pure cost perspective, the LPA is a fraction of the price.

Today would be ideal. Tomorrow is fine. Next month is pushing it. Waiting until "something happens" means waiting until it's too late, because an LPA can only be created while the person still has mental capacity. After that point, the door closes and it doesn't reopen.

How long does it take? About 20 to 30 minutes on screen. OPG registration adds roughly 12 weeks. From that point on, the LPA is on standby. You might go through your whole life without activating it, and honestly, that would be the best possible outcome.

Our LPA service covers both document types. Guided questions, plain language, and a finished LPA ready for signing and OPG registration. You pick your attorneys, record your preferences, and the hard part is done.