Taking control of your future: The importance of Lasting Powers of Attorney 

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is a legal document that allows you to appoint one or more people to make decisions on your behalf if you lose the mental capacity to do so yourself. Those appointed are known as attorneys, and the decisions they can make depend on the type of LPA you have in place. Despite being one of the most practical steps a person can take to protect their future, LPAs remain significantly underused. Many people put off making them because they associate loss of capacity with old age, or because they would rather not think about the possibility that they might one day need help. The uncomfortable truth is that capacity can be lost at any age through a sudden accident, a stroke, a degenerative condition, or serious illness. The time to prepare is before any of that happens, not after. 

Without LPAs in place, no one automatically has the legal authority to manage your affairs or make decisions about your care, not even a spouse or close family member. If you lose capacity without having prepared them, your loved ones would need to apply to the Court of Protection for a deputyship order. That process is considerably more complex and expensive than making an LPA and can take many months to complete. The deputy appointed may not be the person you would have chosen yourself, and the scope of their authority is defined by the Court rather than by you. The Court also retains an ongoing oversight role for as long as the deputyship continues. An LPA avoids all of that. It lets you decide in advance who acts for you, on what terms, and within what boundaries, while you are still well enough to give those decisions proper thought. 

The two types of LPA and what they cover 

There are two distinct types of LPA and many people choose to make both. A property and financial affairs LPA gives your attorney authority to manage your financial life on your behalf. This covers a wide range of matters, from operating bank and building society accounts and managing investments to paying bills, collecting income such as pensions or rental payments, and buying or selling property. Importantly, this type of LPA can be used with your consent while you still have capacity, which can be a practical arrangement if you are temporarily incapacitated or simply find it helpful to have someone manage certain matters for you. It must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before it can be used, and registration currently takes a number of weeks. That alone is a good reason to act sooner rather than later. 

A health and welfare LPA is different in both scope and when it can be used. It covers personal decisions about your care and medical treatment, including where you live, your day-to-day routine, what medical treatment you receive, and who has contact with you. You can also use it to grant your attorney authority to make decisions about life-sustaining treatment, though this must be explicitly included. Unlike the financial LPA, a health and welfare LPA can only be used once you have lost capacity to make the relevant decision yourself. It cannot be invoked as a matter of convenience and is specifically designed for situations where you are genuinely unable to make decisions unaided. Having one in place gives trusted people the legal authority to act in your best interests at exactly the moment when you are most vulnerable and least able to advocate for yourself. 

Choosing your attorneys and getting the details right 

Deciding who to appoint as your attorney is one of the most significant choices involved in making an LPA. Your attorney will be acting in your name, potentially managing substantial assets or making decisions about your medical care, so the choice requires careful thought. Attorneys must be over 18, must have mental capacity themselves, and cannot be bankrupt if they are being appointed under a financial LPA. Beyond those legal requirements, the most important qualities are trustworthiness, good judgement, and a genuine understanding of your values and wishes. Many people choose a close family member, but a trusted friend or a professional such as a solicitor can also be appointed, and a professional attorney may be particularly appropriate where family relationships are complex or where the financial affairs involved require a high degree of expertise. 

You can appoint more than one attorney, and if you do, you will need to specify how they are to act. Attorneys can be appointed jointly, which means they must agree on every decision, or jointly and severally, which means each can act independently as well as together. It is also possible to mix the two approaches for different types of decision. The right arrangement depends on the level of oversight you want built in and the practicalities of your attorneys’ own lives and circumstances. It is also worth appointing one or more replacement attorneys to step in if your original attorney is unwilling or unable to continue acting, as this avoids any need to return to the Court of Protection if that situation arises. 

The LPA document also allows you to include instructions, which your attorney must follow, and preferences, which they should take into account but are not legally bound by. Instructions might relate to specific financial arrangements or treatment wishes. Preferences might reflect your values around care, independence, or where you would like to live. Both are worth thinking through carefully, as they help ensure the document reflects the full picture of what matters to you rather than simply conferring a broad legal authority on someone else. Your attorney is always required by law to act in your best interests, to consider your past and present wishes, and to involve you in decisions to the greatest extent possible. Detailed instructions and preferences give them a far clearer framework within which to do that. 

It is also important to understand that capacity is not a binary concept. A person may have capacity to make some decisions but not others, and it can fluctuate over time. An attorney acting under an LPA should always start from the assumption that the person retains capacity unless there is clear evidence otherwise, and should support them to make decisions for themselves wherever possible. The Mental Capacity Act 2005 sets out the legal framework within which all attorneys must operate, and the OPG publishes detailed guidance to help them understand their responsibilities. 

LPAs are not irrevocable. As long as you retain capacity, you can revoke an LPA at any time and create a new one if your circumstances or wishes change. There is therefore no reason to delay on the basis that your situation might look different in the future. The key point is that once capacity is lost, it is too late to create an LPA at all, and at that point the only route open to family members is the Court of Protection. Making the arrangements now, while you are well and able to give them proper thought, is the most straightforward way to ensure your affairs can be managed and your wishes respected if the time comes.