Set up a Lasting Power of Attorney online

Setting up an LPA is mostly decisions, not paperwork. Once you know who your attorneys are, how they should act together and who will certify the document, the form itself takes about twenty minutes per LPA online.

Make your LPA online for £49

Answer simple questions. We prepare your LPA documents from your answers, ready for the next steps.

  • £49 per LPA, or £79 for both types
  • No solicitor required for straightforward LPAs
  • Plain English questions, one screen at a time
  • Save your progress and come back to it
  • Checked for common completion errors as you go
  • Review everything before you pay

The Office of the Public Guardian charges a separate £92 to register each LPA.

Four decisions to settle first

  1. Which LPA you need — money, health, or both. See property and financial affairs LPA and health and welfare LPA.
  2. Who your attorneys are, and whether you want replacements.
  3. Whether they act jointly, or jointly and severally.
  4. For a health LPA, whether attorneys can decide about life-sustaining treatment.

The checklist, in order

StepWhat you need
Confirm the donor's capacityThe donor understands and freely wants to make the LPA
Choose attorneysFull names, addresses, dates of birth
Choose replacementsOptional but recommended if attorneys act jointly
Choose a certificate providerNot a relative of the donor or an attorney
Decide on people to notifyOptional — form LP3 if used
Complete and review the formAbout 20 minutes per LPA online
Sign in order and register£92 per document to the OPG

Then the paperwork

We turn those decisions into a completed LP1F or LP1H, add continuation sheets where the form runs out of space, and produce a signing guide naming every signatory and page. Setting the decisions is the hard part; the paperwork follows quickly once they are made.

Common setup mistakes

  • Appointing attorneys jointly with no replacement, so the LPA fails entirely if one dies or loses capacity
  • Not deciding the life-sustaining treatment question before starting, which stalls the health LPA halfway through
  • Picking a certificate provider who turns out to be disqualified — check eligibility before you ask them

Start your LPA

Eligibility takes about a minute and flags anything in your situation that is worth settling before you begin the form itself.

Comparing the setup routes

GOV.UK, freeSet up here, £49-£79Solicitor, £300-£800+
Working through the decisionsUnstructured, from guidance notesStructured checklist, one decision at a timeDiscussed directly with the solicitor
Error checking on the formNone built inChecked as you answerChecked by the solicitor
Cost to prepare one LPA£0£49£300-£600

Setting up both types together

Most donor and attorney details are identical whether you are setting up a financial or a health LPA, so answering them once and applying them to both saves time as well as £19 compared with buying separately. The only questions that differ are the life-sustaining treatment decision, which only applies to LP1H, and any financial-specific preferences, which only apply to LP1F.

A worked setup example

Peter is setting up an LPA for the first time at 64. He decides he wants both types, chooses his wife as his primary attorney with his brother as replacement, and settles on jointly and severally so either can act without the other. For the health LPA he decides his wife can make decisions about life-sustaining treatment. Working through our checklist takes him two sessions of about 25 minutes each. He pays £79, signs with his wife and brother present in the correct order, and posts both forms together for £184.

What can go wrong at the setup stage

  • Deciding on attorneys without checking whether they are willing to act, only to find out at the signing stage that one refuses
  • Leaving the life-sustaining treatment box undecided, which stalls a health LPA halfway through completion
  • Assuming a solicitor family friend can act as certificate provider without checking they are not disqualified by the relationship

Common questions

Do I need to decide everything before I start the online form?

No. You can begin with the donor's details and come back once you have spoken to prospective attorneys and a certificate provider.

Can I set up an LPA without naming a replacement attorney?

Yes, it is not compulsory, but if your only attorney can no longer act the LPA becomes unusable and you would need to start again.

Do I have to set up both LPAs at the same time?

No, you can set up one now and add the other later, though doing both together saves £19 on our fee and avoids re-entering the same donor and attorney details.

What if my attorneys change their mind after I have set everything up?

You would need to redo the affected sections before signing; nothing is final until the document is signed, so changing an attorney at this stage is straightforward.

Is there a deadline for setting up an LPA?

No, but it can only be made while the donor has mental capacity, so it is worth acting before health changes make that uncertain.

Read next

Where this fits

This page is part of LPA costs and fees. The pages below take it further.

See the full cost before you commit

£49 per LPA, £79 for both, plus the £92 the Office of the Public Guardian charges to register each one.

The Office of the Public Guardian charges a separate £92 to register each LPA.

This is general information about Lasting Powers of Attorney in England and Wales. We are not a law firm and this is not legal advice about your situation. What we do and do not do.