Lasting power of attorney from £120

How does an LPA work?

If you ever become unable to express your wishes, an LPA enables someone to step in and make decisions for you about your health and care or your finances. These important decisions will be made by someone you choose and trust, and you can choose the right type of LPA for your circumstances.

Without an LPA, if you need someone to step in and manage your finances in the future, their only option will be to apply for a deputyship order through the court. This can be a costly, complex and lengthy process. If you have an LPA, it can take effect as soon as it’s needed, meaning your chosen attorney can step in straight away.

Once your LPA is in place, you can have peace of mind that someone you trust can look after your affairs if you're ever unable to yourself, because of an illness or accident.

Your LPA can include instructions for your attorney, as well as your general preferences, to help them make the right choices for you. Your LPA should reflect your wishes so you know that the things that matter most would be taken care of.

Who needs a lasting power of attorney?

An accident or illness can strike anyone at any age, often without warning. For this reason, an LPA in an important legal document for anyone to put in place.

If you lose capacity to make decisions and you don't have an LPA, no one has the legal authority to manage your finances for you or make decisions about your healthcare. If you wish to retain control over the decisions that are made on your behalf and give this authority to someone you trust, you should consider making an LPA.

Without an LPA, someone you might not have chosen could be appointed by the court to manage your affairs for you, under a deputyship order.

If you want peace of mind that a particular person will have the legal authority to look after your affairs, without them needing to go through the costly and complicated process of making a deputyship order, consider making an LPA.

Why use a professional lasting power of attorney service?

An LPA is a legally binding document which is more complex that you might expect, and it's easy to get this wrong. A poorly drafted LPA could be found to be invalid or ineffective when it's needed, meaning that it's essentially worthless. This is why we would always recommend getting your LPA professionally drafted.

Benefits of making a lasting power of attorney with Co-op Legal Services

With our LPA service you'll receive all the necessary documents prepared for you, ready to sign. We offer fixed fee prices agreed upfront before any work on your LPA starts.

With Co-op Legal Services, there are two ways you can make your LPA with us. You can use our digital LPA service to start your LPA online, from £120, or you can request a callback for our fully advised LPA service, from £399.

For peace of mind, with our fully advised LPA service we can take full responsibility for the registration of your LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), which will require payment of both our fixed fee and the OPG registration fee. (When using our digital LPA service, you'll need to register your LPA yourself with the Office of the Public Guardian.)

When you start your LPA online with our digital LPA service, we offer online guidance and a follow up call from a specialist to check your LPA and answer any questions. Some other online LPA providers simply provide a DIY document production service. The distinction is very important. LPAs are incredibly powerful documents and it’s very easy to make mistakes or misunderstand what they are, what they do and how they can be used.

The dangers of a DIY lasting power of attorney

Where issues often arise with LPAs is when people try to draft these documents themselves, without professional advice.

Do you know how to appoint replacement attorneys, for example, or how to appoint multiple attorneys to act either jointly or severally? If you want to leave instructions for your attorneys, do you know how to word these in a way that makes them legally sound and avoids any ambiguity?

Another risk of going it alone is that your appointed attorney may not be clear on what is and isn't permitted in their role. Remember that when your LPA comes into effect your Attorney is likely to have a lot on their plate. They may be caring for you or coming to terms with an accident or illness that has taken your mental capacity. The last thing you want is for them to be hauled before the Court of Protection because of an accidental breach of duty.

Investigations by the Office of the Public Guardian

The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is the government organisation responsible for overseeing lasting power of attorney and deputyship arrangements in England and Wales. The priority of the OPG is to protect people who are not able to make (or express) their own decisions.

If the OPG believes that an attorney or a deputy is acting in a way that is not in the best interests of the individual, then they will launch an investigation.