Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney – Forms for Free

It’s im­port­ant to note that free online Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney forms rarely accord with your per­son­al wishes.

The Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (also called an LPA) gives an­oth­er person legal au­thor­ity to make fin­an­cial or per­son­al health­care de­cisions on your behalf.

There are vari­ous cir­cum­stances that may lead to the need for a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney.

The most common is the loss of the mental ca­pa­city to make de­cisions about your life. This may be due to old age and de­clin­ing cog­nit­ive abil­it­ies. Other cases may be due to phys­ic­al and ter­min­al ill­nesses, as well as the desire to simply not want to deal with such re­spons­ib­il­it­ies.

However, anyone can fall ill or have an ac­ci­dent. Having a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney en­sures that the right person is taking care of your needs with your best in­terests in mind.

In this art­icle, we present what a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney en­tails and why it is ad­vis­able to pre­pare this doc­u­ment through a pro­fes­sion­al ser­vice.

UK's Go-To Choice for Cre­at­ing an LPA

Try out for free!

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Helps to An­ti­cip­ate the Future

The Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 is a cru­cial piece of le­gis­la­tion in the United King­dom that provides a legal frame­work for de­cision-making on behalf of in­di­vidu­als who may lack the mental ca­pa­city to make cer­tain de­cisions for them­selves. This act was es­tab­lished to safe­guard the rights and in­terests of in­di­vidu­als who are unable to make de­cisions due to mental in­ca­pa­city, wheth­er tem­por­ar­ily or per­man­ently.

One of the key pro­vi­sions of the Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 is the cre­ation of Last­ing Powers of At­tor­ney (LPAs), which are cat­egor­ised into two dis­tinct types: Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA and Health and Wel­fare LPA.

A Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) is a cru­cial legal in­stru­ment that grants someone you trust the au­thor­ity to make health­care de­cisions on your behalf should you lose the ca­pa­city to do so. Or, an LPA can be used to allow someone you trust to make fin­an­cial de­cisions on your behalf should you lack the ca­pa­city or desire to do so.

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Forms: Un­der­stand­ing the Im­plic­a­tions

Given its sig­ni­fic­ance, it's es­sen­tial to thor­oughly un­der­stand and care­fully review your LPA before fi­nal­ising it.

As men­tioned, there are two types of Last­ing Powers of At­tor­ney (LPAs): one for Fin­an­cial Mat­ters and one for Health and Wel­fare. We will delve more in-depth into what these forms entail.

1. Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA

An LPA for prop­erty and fin­an­cial af­fairs grants the chosen at­tor­ney the abil­ity to make de­cisions on your behalf about your prop­erty, fin­ances, and other re­lated mat­ters.

This means they have the au­thor­ity to manage your bank ac­counts, pay bills and even buy or sell your prop­erty. Ba­sic­ally, the LPA out­lines who will re­spons­ibly take care of your fin­ances.

For ex­ample, Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA in­cludes:

• daily bank­ing
• per­son­al fin­ances
• buying and selling prop­erty

2. Health and Wel­fare LPA

An LPA for health and wel­fare is for people who lack the mental ca­pa­city to make de­cisions about their health and wel­fare in gen­er­al. So, the at­tor­ney has the au­thor­ity to make wel­fare, health­care and med­ic­al treat­ment de­cisions on your behalf, as provided for in the LPA.

For ex­ample, a Health and Wel­fare LPA in­cludes:

• living con­di­tions
• who you have con­tact with
• the best med­ic­al treat­ments for you

Why Get an LPA?

There are many reas­ons why someone would want to have an LPA. Here are some of their best and most pop­u­lar ar­gu­ments:

• Un­pre­dict­able ac­ci­dents or ill­nesses can result in people not being able to make de­cisions for them­selves. This is one way to pre­pare for that.
• The risk of cog­nit­ive impair­ment in­creases as we grow older, so it is ne­ces­sary to think about pos­sible future scen­ari­os.
• Family mem­bers may have to go through lengthy and costly court pro­ceed­ings if they do not have an LPA to make de­cisions on your behalf.

Read more on how to use a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney

Get­ting Star­ted With Your LPA

When pre­par­ing for the future, un­der­stand­ing the ter­min­o­logy and pro­ced­ur­al re­quire­ments of a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) is vital. It's cru­cial to be aware of the roles in­volved, the im­port­ance of mental ca­pa­city in the pro­cess, and the spe­cif­ic steps needed to leg­ally form­al­ise this crit­ic­al safe­guard.

Here, we break down the es­sen­tial terms and out­line what's re­quired to ensure your LPA is valid and re­flect­ive of your wishes.

Ter­min­o­logy ex­plained:

• Donor: The person making the LPA is called a donor.
• At­tor­ney: The person ap­poin­ted to act on behalf of the Donor is called an at­tor­ney.

Anyone Over 18 Can Make an LPA

An LPA can be made by an adult who is fully com­pet­ent. Being fully com­pet­ent means that the person making the LPA un­der­stands its con­tent and sig­ni­fic­ance.

You must have the mental ca­pa­city to sign your LPA. So, if you know you’ll be in­ca­pa­cit­ated soon, con­sider vol­un­tar­ily choos­ing who you want to ap­point as your at­tor­ney(s).

Aatos Cus­tom­er Feed­back

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Very easy and un­der­stand­able in­struc­tions for draft­ing a last­ing power of at­tor­ney. It's not dif­fi­cult to use the ser­vice and it's quick to do. It's worth doing in ad­vance to get it ex­actly as you have en­vi­sioned.” - Will

Often, the LPA is made at a later age. However, a LPA can also be be­ne­fi­cial in the event of an ac­ci­dent or sudden ill­ness. In these cases, the ap­poin­ted person can manage tasks such as paying rent, hand­ling bills, or man­aging private busi­ness activ­it­ies when the in­di­vidu­al is tem­por­ar­ily unable to do so them­selves.

The pro­cess in­volves com­plet­ing a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney form provided by the gov­ern­ment.  For health and wel­fare de­cisions this is called an LP1H and for fin­ance de­cisions the form is called LP1F. You can also create your LPA with a so­li­cit­or or you can use an online legal ser­vice to guide you through the entire pro­cess, which can be con­fus­ing.

In all cases, your LPA will need to be wit­nessed - this helps pre­vent fraud, co­er­cion, or undue in­flu­ence in the cre­ation of the LPA, en­sur­ing that the donor's wishes are re­spec­ted and upheld.

The Wit­ness CAN Be:

✅ Any person who is not a party to the LPA: This means that the wit­ness cannot be someone who is named as an at­tor­ney or a re­place­ment at­tor­ney in the LPA.
✅ Someone who is over 18 years old: Wit­nesses must be adults.
✅ Someone who has mental ca­pa­city: Wit­nesses must be of sound mind - they must be cap­able of un­der­stand­ing the nature of the doc­u­ment being signed.
✅ Someone who is not under the in­flu­ence: The wit­ness should not be under the in­flu­ence of al­co­hol or drugs while wit­ness­ing the sign­ing of the LPA.
✅ Someone who is not co­erced or pres­sured: The wit­ness should not be under any pres­sure to wit­ness the doc­u­ment.

The Wit­ness CAN’T Be:

🚫 A family member: Family mem­bers of the person cre­at­ing the LPA, in­clud­ing spouses, civil part­ners, chil­dren, grand­chil­dren, par­ents, or sib­lings, cannot act as wit­nesses.
🚫 A person under 18 years old: Minors cannot act as wit­nesses.
🚫 Someone lack­ing mental ca­pa­city: People who lack the mental ca­pa­city to un­der­stand the nature of the doc­u­ment cannot be wit­nesses.
🚫 Someone not present during the sign­ing
🚫 Wit­nesses must be phys­ic­ally present during the sign­ing of the LPA; remote wit­ness­ing is not per­mit­ted.

The LPA also needs to be signed by a cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider. This is a person who con­firms that the donor un­der­stands the nature and scope of the LPA and is making the de­cision to grant power vol­un­tar­ily and without undue in­flu­ence.

The cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider can be someone who has known the donor per­son­ally for at least two years or someone with rel­ev­ant pro­fes­sion­al skills and ex­pert­ise, such as a doctor, so­li­cit­or, or social worker. Their role is to assess the donor's mental ca­pa­city and ensure that they are fully aware of the im­plic­a­tions of cre­at­ing an LPA.

It should be noted that the At­tor­ney can only act within the scope of what is ex­pli­citly in­cluded in the LPA. The doc­u­ment con­fers only those rights that are ex­pressly stip­u­lated within it.

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Forms and Tem­plates

Below, we provide a basic tem­plate for an LPA form. The tem­plate provided serves merely as an il­lus­trat­ive ex­ample to demon­strate what a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) should in­clude in prac­tice. It's es­sen­tial to ensure that all ne­ces­sary in­form­a­tion is ac­cur­ately re­cor­ded to make the LPA leg­ally valid and en­force­able.

It's im­port­ant to re­mem­ber that basic tem­plates often fall short of meet­ing the unique needs of in­di­vidu­als, as well as the gov­ern­ment who will need to re­gister your LPA after con­firm­ing that it is leg­ally valid. If the LPA is not deemed leg­ally valid then it cannot be re­gistered, mean­ing that it cannot be used.

Both the Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial af­fairs LPA as well as the Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney for Health and Wel­fare tem­plates are sim­il­ar.

Use the fol­low­ing in­form­a­tion as a start­ing point to un­der­stand what needs to be in­cluded in your LPA in order for it to be valid. Again, we em­phas­ise that this is simply a basic guide to help you un­der­stand more about what needs to be in­cluded in your LPA.

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney for Fin­an­cial De­cisions: Ex­ample

Donor's In­form­a­tion:

Full name:
Ad­dress:
Date of birth:
Email: (op­tion­al)

At­tor­ney's In­form­a­tion:

Full name(s) of ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney(s):
Ad­dress(es):
Date of birth(s):
Email(s): (op­tion­al)

Re­place­ment At­tor­ney (if ap­plic­able):

Full name(s) of ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney(s):
Ad­dress(es):
Date of birth(s):
Email(s): (op­tion­al)

How the At­tor­ney Should Make De­cisions

Choose 1 of the fol­low­ing op­tions:

• [I only ap­poin­ted one at­tor­ney] (option 1)
• [At­tor­ney(s) should make de­cisions Jointly and Sev­er­ally] (option 2)
• [Jointly] (option 3)
• [Jointly for some de­cisions, Jointly and Sev­er­ally for other de­cisions] (option 4)

People to Notify (op­tion­al):

Insert De­tails of in­di­vidu­als or or­gan­isa­tions to be no­ti­fied when the LPA is re­gistered.

In­struc­tions and Pref­er­ences:

Insert Spe­cif­ic in­struc­tions and or pref­er­ences for the at­tor­ney(s). For ex­ample, the donor may have pref­er­ences that they would like the at­tor­ney(s) to follow where pos­sible, or in­struc­tions that they must follow when making fin­an­cial de­cisions.

When at­tor­ney(s) can make de­cisions

Select 1 option:

• [Upon LPA re­gis­tra­tion] (option 1)
• [When the donor loses mental ca­pa­city]  (option 2)

Donor Sig­na­ture

Insert state­ment con­firm­ing that the donor has:

• Read the LPA and un­der­stands it
• Ap­points and gives the at­tor­ney(s) the au­thor­ity to make de­cisions about the donor’s prop­erty and fin­an­cial af­fairs, as stip­u­lated in the LPA and sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions of the Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 
• Agrees to the in­form­a­tion provided in the LPA being used by the Office of the Public Guard­i­an in car­ry­ing out its duties 
• They have either ap­poin­ted people to notify or chosen not to notify anyone when the LPA is re­gistered

Donor Sig­na­ture: [Donor Sig­na­ture - to be signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date].

Wit­ness Full Name: [Full name of wit­ness].
Wit­ness Ad­dress: [Full ad­dress of wit­ness in­clud­ing post­code].
Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of in­de­pend­ent wit­ness signed in black ink].

Cer­ti­fic­ate Pro­vider Sig­na­ture

Insert state­ment from the ‘cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’ con­firm­ing that:

• They are over 18
• They have read the LPA
• There’s no re­stric­tions on them acting as cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider
• They have known the donor for more than 2 years or been chosen due to having rel­ev­ant pro­fes­sion­al skills and ex­pert­ise
• They have dis­cussed the last­ing power of at­tor­ney (LPA) with the donor who un­der­stands what they are doing and that nobody is for­cing them to do it
• There is noth­ing else which would pre­vent the LPA from being cre­ated

Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s full name: [Insert cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s name]
Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s full ad­dress: [Insert cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s ad­dress]
Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date.]

At­tor­ney(s) sig­na­ture(s)

The At­tor­ney(s) sign and make a state­ment con­firm­ing that:

• They are over 18
• They have read the LPA and un­der­stand they have a duty to act based on the prin­ciples of the Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 and to have regard to the Mental Ca­pa­city Act Code of Prac­tice
• They must make de­cisions and act in the best in­terests of the donor 
• They must take into ac­count any pref­er­ences or in­struc­tions given in the LPA
• They can make de­cisions and act only when the LPA has been re­gistered and at the time in­dic­ated in the LPA.

Fur­ther state­ment by a re­place­ment at­tor­ney: I un­der­stand that I have the au­thor­ity to act under this LPA only after an ori­gin­al at­tor­ney’s ap­point­ment is ter­min­ated. I must notify the Public Guard­i­an if this hap­pens.

The At­tor­ney(s) Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture - to be signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date.]
At­tor­ney(s) Full Name: [Full name of At­tor­ney].

Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of in­de­pend­ent wit­ness signed in black ink].
Wit­ness Full Name: [Full name of wit­ness].
Wit­ness Ad­dress: [Full ad­dress of wit­ness in­clud­ing post­code].

---------------------------

Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney for Health and Wel­fare De­cisions: Ex­ample

Donor's In­form­a­tion:

Full name:
Ad­dress:
Date of birth:
Email: (op­tion­al)

At­tor­ney's In­form­a­tion:

Full name(s) of ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney(s):
Ad­dress(es):
Date of birth(s):
Email(s): (op­tion­al)

Re­place­ment At­tor­ney (if ap­plic­able):

Full name(s) of ap­poin­ted at­tor­ney(s):
Ad­dress(es):
Date of birth(s):
Email(s): (op­tion­al)

How the At­tor­ney Should Make De­cisions

Choose 1 of the fol­low­ing op­tions:

• [I only ap­poin­ted one at­tor­ney] (option 1)
• [At­tor­ney(s) should make de­cisions Jointly and Sev­er­ally] (option 2)
• [Jointly] (option 3)
• [Jointly for some de­cisions, Jointly and Sev­er­ally for other de­cisions] (option 4)

Life sus­tain­ing treat­ment

Choose 1 option:

• I give my at­tor­ney(s) au­thor­ity to give or refuse con­sent to life-sus­tain­ing treat­ment on my behalf (option1)
• I do not give my at­tor­ney(s) au­thor­ity to give or refuse con­sent to life-sus­tain­ing treat­ment on my behalf (option 2).

Donor Sig­na­ture: [Donor Sig­na­ture - to be signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date].

Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of in­de­pend­ent wit­ness signed in black ink].
Wit­ness Full Name: [Full name of wit­ness].
Wit­ness Ad­dress: [Full ad­dress of wit­ness in­clud­ing post­code].

People to Notify (op­tion­al):

Insert De­tails of in­di­vidu­als or or­gan­isa­tions to be no­ti­fied when the LPA is re­gistered.

In­struc­tions and Pref­er­ences:

Insert Spe­cif­ic in­struc­tions and or pref­er­ences for the at­tor­ney(s). For ex­ample, the donor may have pref­er­ences that they would like the at­tor­ney(s) to follow where pos­sible, or in­struc­tions that they must follow when making health­care de­cisions.

Donor Sig­na­ture

Insert state­ment con­firm­ing that the donor has:

• Read the LPA and un­der­stands it
• Ap­points and gives the at­tor­ney(s) the au­thor­ity to make de­cisions about the donor’s health and wel­fare when they they cannot act for them­selves be­cause they lack the mental ca­pa­city, sub­ject to the pro­vi­sions in the LPA and the Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 
• Agrees to the in­form­a­tion provided in the LPA being used by the Office of the Public Guard­i­an in car­ry­ing out its duties 
• They have either ap­poin­ted people to notify or chosen not to notify anyone when the LPA is re­gistered

Donor Sig­na­ture: [Donor Sig­na­ture - to be signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date.]

Wit­ness Full Name: [Full name of wit­ness].
Wit­ness Ad­dress: [Full ad­dress of wit­ness in­clud­ing post­code].
Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of in­de­pend­ent wit­ness signed in black ink].

Cer­ti­fic­ate Pro­vider Sig­na­ture

Insert state­ment from the ‘cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’ con­firm­ing that:

• They are over 18
• They have read the LPA
• There’s no re­stric­tions on them acting as cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider
• They have known the donor for more than 2 years or been chosen due to having rel­ev­ant pro­fes­sion­al skills and ex­pert­ise
• They have dis­cussed the last­ing power of at­tor­ney (LPA) with the donor who un­der­stands what they are doing and that nobody is for­cing them to do it
• There is noth­ing else which would pre­vent the LPA from being cre­ated

Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s full name: [Insert cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s name]
Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s full ad­dress: [Insert cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s ad­dress]
Cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider’s sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of cer­ti­fic­ate pro­vider signed in black ink].

Date: [Sig­na­ture date.]

At­tor­ney(s) sig­na­ture(s)

The At­tor­ney(s) sign and make a state­ment con­firm­ing that:

• They are over 18
• They have read the LPA and un­der­stand they have a duty to act based on the prin­ciples of the Mental Ca­pa­city Act 2005 and to have regard to the Mental Ca­pa­city Act Code of Prac­tice
• They must make de­cisions and act in the best in­terests of the donor 
• They must take into ac­count any pref­er­ences or in­struc­tions given in the LPA
• They can make de­cisions and act only when the LPA has been re­gistered and the donor lacks mental ca­pa­city

Fur­ther state­ment by a re­place­ment at­tor­ney:

I un­der­stand that I have the au­thor­ity to act under this LPA only after an ori­gin­al at­tor­ney’s ap­point­ment is ter­min­ated. I must notify the Public Guard­i­an if this hap­pens.

The At­tor­ney(s) Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture - to be signed in black ink].
Date: [Sig­na­ture date.]
At­tor­ney(s) Full Name: [Full name of At­tor­ney].

Wit­ness Sig­na­ture: [Sig­na­ture of in­de­pend­ent wit­ness signed in black ink].
Wit­ness Full Name: [Full name of wit­ness].
Wit­ness Ad­dress: [Full ad­dress of wit­ness in­clud­ing post­code].

Issues with Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Tem­plates

Many at­tempt to draft their LPAs them­selves to save money.

However, Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Tem­plates like the ones given above are risky be­cause these kinds of tem­plates are not as de­tailed or as ac­cur­ate as the pre­scribed gov­ern­ment forms or lawyer draf­ted tem­plates.

Un­for­tu­nately, a DIY Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney may not be deemed leg­ally valid. The title does not make the LPA; rather, it's the con­tent and how it's struc­tured that matter. So, for this reason, we advise against re­ly­ing solely on free LPA tem­plates you find online, as each doc­u­ment must un­der­go gov­ern­ment review and re­gis­tra­tion to become leg­ally valid. Opting for free online tem­plates car­ries the risk of re­jec­tion by the gov­ern­ment, delay­ing the ef­fect­ive­ness of your LPA.

Aatos Cus­tom­er Feed­back

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ “Hello! I'll share my story: In 2019, I made a last­ing power of at­tor­ney for future con­sid­er­a­tion, in which I thought I had covered all the im­port­ant as­pects, but I nat­ur­ally could­n't use the cor­rect words and phrases. I heard some­where that the last­ing power of at­tor­ney needs to be draf­ted in a way that it can be ap­proved by the gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials. I browsed the in­ter­net, and soon came across the Aatos app. I found it user-friendly and straight­for­ward. I am 90 years old and man­aged very well. Thank you!” - Lily

Also, the risk with DIY Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney tem­plates is that they will not be per­son­al­ised, in­stead they are stand­ard­ised, this means that they will not ef­fect­ively achieve the out­comes in­ten­ded by its cre­at­or.

With that being said, we do un­der­stand that the pre­scribed gov­ern­ment forms are re­l­at­ively long and can be very con­fus­ing and dif­fi­cult to com­plete your­self… So, the real ques­tion is, what is the solu­tion when law­yers are so ex­pens­ive to hire?

Well, the good news is that you can now create leg­ally valid and per­son­al­ised LPAs using Aatos's online ser­vice for £99.

All you have to do is answer a few easy ques­tions online to per­son­al­ise your LPAs to your exact cir­cum­stances, we then post the doc­u­ments to you for sig­na­ture, and even in­clude a simple guide to hold your hand through the re­gis­tra­tion pro­cess.

The Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney doc­u­ments cre­ated via Aatos are based on the gov­ern­ment forms but the pro­cess is sig­ni­fic­antly easier and cheap­er than hiring a lawyer to assist with the pro­cess. With Aatos you can easily create your LPA from the com­fort of your home and make re­vi­sions at any time, giving you max­im­um flex­ib­il­ity. Ad­di­tion­ally, you get com­pli­ment­ary legal as­sist­ance on a fast-track basis at any time!

Why Can't I Just Use a Gen­er­al Power of At­tor­ney?

In the UK, a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) and a Gen­er­al Power of At­tor­ney (GPA) serve dif­fer­ent pur­poses.

1. A Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA)

A Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney is a legal doc­u­ment that allows the donor to ap­point one or more at­tor­neys to make de­cisions on their behalf, once the LPA is re­gistered and when they lose mental ca­pa­city in the future.

As ex­plained above, there are two types of LPAs in the UK: (1) A Health and Wel­fare LPA, which covers de­cisions about health­care and per­son­al wel­fare; and (2) a Prop­erty and Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA, which covers de­cisions about fin­ances and prop­erty.

A Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney must be re­gistered with the Office of the Public Guard­i­an before it can be used, and it re­mains valid even if the donor loses mental ca­pa­city.

2. Gen­er­al Power of At­tor­ney (GPA)

A Gen­er­al Power of At­tor­ney is a legal doc­u­ment that grants the at­tor­ney au­thor­ity to make fin­an­cial or legal de­cisions on behalf of the donor for a spe­cified period or in spe­cif­ic cir­cum­stances.

Unlike an LPA, a GPA is typ­ic­ally used for short-term ar­range­ments or spe­cif­ic pur­poses, such as au­thor­ising someone to manage fin­an­cial mat­ters while the donor is abroad or in­ca­pa­cit­ated tem­por­ar­ily.

A GPA does not remain valid if the donor loses mental ca­pa­city, and it auto­mat­ic­ally be­comes in­val­id upon the donor's death or if the donor re­vokes it.

In sum­mary, while both LPAs and GPAs grant de­cision-making au­thor­ity to someone else, LPAs are de­signed to provide long-term pro­tec­tion and cover a broad­er range of de­cisions, es­pe­cially in the event of mental in­ca­pa­city.

The Cost of LPA’s vary

The cost of an LPA de­pends largely on wheth­er you create it with a so­li­cit­or or through an online ser­vice.

*You will re­ceive the LPA along with other legal doc­u­ments for the same price. We also provide com­pli­ment­ary legal as­sist­ance, stor­age, and un­lim­ited re­vi­sions. It can be can­celled at any time.

Based on a com­par­is­on by the Com­pet­i­tion and Mar­kets Au­thor­ity and Legal Ser­vices Board, the price of a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney gen­er­ally is from £100 to £1,000, the mean price being £378. These prices in­clude only the so­li­cit­or's fees and the cost of the doc­u­ment.

Aatos Cus­tom­er Feed­back

Cre­at­ing a LPA using Aatos is easy even for the eld­erly be­cause: the text is un­der­stand­able, not too com­plic­ated nor filled with dif­fi­cult legal terms, I re­ceived legal as­sist­ance quickly or in a reas­on­able time via email when needed, good in­struc­tions for draft­ing the doc­u­ment, stor­age, wit­ness sig­na­tures, and en­for­cing the guard­i­an­ship and reas­on­able price. -Mary

In Aatos's ser­vice, a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney is in­cluded, which costs only £99. This allows you to deal with all your legal needs without fear­ing ex­pens­ive so­li­cit­or fees.

Our online ser­vice guides you by asking cla­ri­fy­ing ques­tions, based on which we cus­tom­ise the doc­u­ment for you. Ad­di­tion­ally, our ser­vice always in­cludes free legal advice for our cus­tom­ers and di­git­al stor­age of your doc­u­ments.

Read more on how to create Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney Online

Without an LPA, Right to Self-de­term­in­a­tion May Di­min­ish

If you fail to create an LPA, it is quite pos­sible that your wishes may not be re­spec­ted. There are two pos­sib­il­it­ies in such a scen­ario: your re­l­at­ives may become your guard­i­ans, or an of­fi­cial may ap­point a public guard­i­an for you.

Guard­i­an or public guard­i­an

Your re­l­at­ives would have to apply to become your guard­i­an. The guard­i­an would need to seek per­mis­sion from the gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials to manage your af­fairs and main­tain annual ac­counts of your assets, which can be bur­den­some for them.

An­oth­er option is to apply for a public guard­i­an from the gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials. However, a public guard­i­an may have hun­dreds of cli­ents whose af­fairs they manage sim­ul­tan­eously.

By making an LPA, you ease the lives of your loved ones and ensure that your right to self-de­term­in­a­tion is re­spec­ted even when you can no longer manage your own af­fairs.

With an LPA, you decide:

• who will manage your af­fairs
• what mat­ters your chosen person will handle

Ad­di­tion­ally, you make life easier for your loved ones since they won't need to re­quest per­mis­sion from the gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials to manage your af­fairs or submit annual ac­counts.

Ac­tiv­a­tion of the Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney

When the Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney doc­u­ment has been cre­ated and signed, it is not yet in effect.

The ori­gin­al and duly signed and wit­nessed LPA first needs to be sent via post to the Office of the Public Guard­i­an (OPG) so that they can re­gister it.

The ad­dress is:

Office of the Public Guard­i­an PO Box 16185
Birm­ing­ham B2 2WH

Once the LPA has been re­gistered by the OPG the donor and their at­tor­neys re­ceive con­firm­a­tion of re­gis­tra­tion from the OPG. This con­firm­a­tion typ­ic­ally in­cludes a re­gis­tra­tion cer­ti­fic­ate with a unique ref­er­ence number.

The donor, at­tor­neys, and anyone else in­volved in man­aging the donor's af­fairs should re­ceive a copy of the re­gis­tra­tion cer­ti­fic­ate. This cer­ti­fic­ate serves as of­fi­cial proof that the LPA has been re­gistered. Ad­di­tion­ally, the OPG up­dates its re­cords to re­flect the re­gis­tra­tion status of the LPA.

If you have stated in your Fin­an­cial Af­fairs LPA that you want your at­tor­ney(s) to be able to act as soon as it is re­gistered, then as soon as it is re­gistered by the OPG it is leg­ally ef­fect­ive and can be used.

Where­as the Health and Wel­fare LPA only comes into effect once it has been re­gistered by the OPG AND the donor has lost mental ca­pa­city and be­comes in­cap­able of man­aging their own af­fairs. A typ­ic­al situ­ation might be, for ex­ample, the granter­'s ad­vanced de­men­tia, which pre­vents them from man­aging their own af­fairs.

The OPG over­sees the ac­tions of ap­poin­ted at­tor­neys and en­sures that they act in the best in­terests of the donor and comply with the terms spe­cified in the LPA doc­u­ment.

Su­per­vi­sion by gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials, such as the OPG, in­cludes re­view­ing the ac­tions of at­tor­neys, in­vest­ig­at­ing com­plaints or con­cerns raised by stake­hold­ers, and provid­ing guid­ance on mat­ters re­lated to LPAs.

The extent of su­per­vi­sion can be in­flu­enced by the con­di­tions and in­struc­tions out­lined in the LPA doc­u­ment. For ex­ample, the donor may spe­cify re­port­ing re­quire­ments, re­stric­tions on cer­tain types of trans­ac­tions, or con­di­tions for the at­tor­ney's ex­er­cise of au­thor­ity. These pro­vi­sions can shape the level of over­sight and ac­count­ab­il­ity ap­plied by the OPG to ensure com­pli­ance with the donor's wishes and legal ob­lig­a­tions.

Read more on How to Ac­tiv­ate Power of At­tor­ney for Health and Wel­fare?

Cre­at­ing Tailored LPA in­stead of Using a Gen­er­ic Form

Are you con­sid­er­ing cre­at­ing a Last­ing Power of At­tor­ney (LPA) or draft­ing your Last Will but feel over­whelmed by the legal com­plex­it­ies?

Aatos offers a seam­less solu­tion that sim­pli­fies the pro­cess, en­sur­ing that you don't need any prior legal know­ledge to get star­ted. Our di­git­al legal ser­vice is de­signed to guide you through each step, asking per­tin­ent ques­tions about your situ­ation and pref­er­ences. This allows us to create a per­son­al­ised, leg­ally bind­ing doc­u­ment tailored to your spe­cif­ic needs.

With Aatos, you can have peace of mind know­ing that your doc­u­ment will in­clude all ne­ces­sary legal pro­vi­sions, craf­ted ex­clus­ively for you. The entire pro­cess is swift, taking about 10 minutes.

With Aatos, you can meet your legal needs for just £99. You will be­ne­fit from on­go­ing legal sup­port. This in­cludes always-free legal advice through our chat or email sup­port, fast-track ser­vice for any in­quir­ies, un­lim­ited re­vi­sions to your doc­u­ments, and secure di­git­al stor­age for easy access.