How to make a Lasting Power of Attorney online

Your name, date of birth and address. The same for each attorney you want to appoint. A certificate provider: a friend, neighbour or professional who has known you for two years. Keystone saves your progress so you can come back any time.

The bulk of making a Lasting Power of Attorney is deciding three things, and the questionnaire walks you through each in plain English. First, who your attorneys are: the people you trust to act for you, plus a replacement in case your first choice ever cannot. Second, how they make decisions if you appoint more than one. Jointly means they all sign together; jointly and severally means any of them can act alone, which is what most families pick because it keeps things moving.

Third, anything you want to add. You can write in preferences, which are wishes your attorneys should bear in mind, and instructions, which are rules they have to follow. On a Health and Welfare Lasting Power of Attorney you also decide whether your attorneys can consent to or refuse life sustaining treatment, or whether that stays with your doctors. We explain what each choice means as you go, so you are never ticking a box you do not understand. If you want the background before you start, the Lasting Power of Attorney guidance covers it in full.

This is the part that catches people out. A Lasting Power of Attorney is only valid if it is signed in a strict order, each signature dated, and each one witnessed. You sign first, as the donor. Then your certificate provider signs to confirm you understood what you were doing. Then your attorneys sign. Get the order wrong, miss a date, or use the wrong witness, and the Office of the Public Guardian rejects the whole application and you start again.

Your witness has to be 18 or over, and an attorney cannot witness your signature. It sounds fiddly, and on the bare government form it is. Keystone sends a signing pack that lays out exactly who signs which page, in what order, and who can witness it, so the document goes through first time rather than bouncing back weeks later.

Once it is signed, the Lasting Power of Attorney goes to the Office of the Public Guardian to be registered, and that is what makes it usable. Registration takes around eight to ten weeks, and there is a built in waiting period before it completes. You cannot rush it, which is the best reason to set yours up now rather than when a crisis is already underway.

There is a separate £92 government registration fee per document at this stage, and many people qualify to pay half or nothing under the fee reduction scheme. The registration guide covers the timeline, the fee and the most common reasons applications get sent back.

£69 with Keystone, with a free Will worth £59. Solicitors in England and Wales typically charge £300 to £600 for the exact same document. 25% off every additional document in the same order.