How to Prepare for Your LPA: Questions to Ask Yourself and a Step-by-Step Guide

By Neha Mehta, Chartered Accountant & Financial Coach

If you have just read my article on Lasting Powers of Attorney and thought- ok, time to tackle the bull by its horns, or even- what does it take to make an LPA; then this is for you. If you have landed here directly and want to know more about LPAs first, I would encourage you to take five minutes and read this article: LPAs in the UK.

Moments of clarity matter. Especially when financial decisions are involved, because we as humans tend to react and lead emotionally- that is how our brain is wired. So hold on to this moment as you read through this article, because this is one of those things that is easy to shelve. It will be hard to think about scenarios we would rather not think about, I know I found it hard. And it will be hard to take action and make progress because it is so emotionally stirring. It is the main reason why I procrastinate with any such decision making and action taking.

So before you open the gov.uk tool, before you fill in a single field, I want to help you think. Because the form itself is straightforward. The thinking is where most people get stuck, or worse, rush through in ways they might later regret.

This article is in two parts. The first is a set of questions to sit with before you start. The second is a step-by-step walkthrough of the process itself. You do not need to do both in one sitting. In fact, I would suggest you don't. It's taken me a few sittings myself.

Part One: The Questions to Ask Yourself First

Who do you trust with your life? Literally.

This is not a rhetorical question. Your attorney, for the Health and Welfare LPA, may one day decide whether you receive life-sustaining treatment. They may decide where you live, what care you receive, how your days are structured. This is not someone to choose out of obligation or because they are first on the list.

Ask yourself:

• Who knows me well enough to know what I would want, even in situations we have never discussed?
• Who can hold a difficult conversation with a doctor or a care team, calmly and without being bulldozed?
• Who will put my interests first, even when that is emotionally hard for them?
• Who is organised, reliable, and likely to still be in my life in ten or twenty years?

The answers to those questions may not all point to the same person. That is fine. You can have different attorneys for your health LPA and your financial LPA. You can have more than one attorney for each.

For me, the answer was not family- I do not have family in the UK. My attorneys are friends. People who have seen me make decisions, who know what I value, who understand what a good life looks like for me. Choosing them felt more honest than defaulting to whoever was nearest.

If you appoint more than one attorney, how should they act?

This is a question the form will ask you directly, and many people do not think about it in advance.

You have two options:

Jointly - all attorneys must agree and sign off on every decision together. Safer in some ways, but slower, and if one attorney loses capacity or dies, the LPA may fail entirely unless you have a replacement in place.

Jointly and severally - any attorney can act independently. More flexible, especially for day-to-day financial decisions. Carries slightly more risk if attorneys disagree, but in practice this is what most people choose.

There is also a middle option: jointly for some decisions (the big ones- selling property, major medical decisions) and jointly and severally for others (day-to-day banking, routine care decisions). You can specify this in the form.

Think about: how well your attorneys know each other, what are their respective strengths, whether they are likely to agree, and whether practicality or security matters more to you in each domain.

Do you want to add any instructions or preferences?

This is the part most people either skip entirely or over-engineer. Both are mistakes.

Instructions are binding. If you write them in, your attorneys must follow them. So be careful. Instructions that are too rigid can tie your attorneys' hands in situations you did not anticipate. For example: "I do not want to move into a care home" is an instruction that could cause real problems if your needs change and staying at home becomes unsafe.

Preferences are different. They guide rather than bind. They give your attorneys a window into your values, your personality, your priorities. These are almost always worth including.

Some questions to help you work out what to write:

For the Health and Welfare LPA:

• Are there any medical treatments you would or would not want under any circumstances?
• Do you have views about life-sustaining treatment- when it should be given, and when you would want it withdrawn?
• Where would you want to be cared for, if you had a choice? At home? Near family? In a particular place?
• Are there things that matter deeply to your sense of self- your religion, your culture, your food, your music, your routines; that a carer might not know to preserve?
• Is there anyone you would not want involved in decisions about your care?

For the Property and Financial Affairs LPA:

• Do you want your attorneys to be able to act while you still have capacity, or only once you have lost it?
• Are there any accounts, assets, or financial decisions you want to keep separate or give specific guidance on?
• If you have children or dependants, what should your attorneys prioritise in terms of keeping their lives running?
• Do you want your attorneys to be able to make gifts on your behalf on certain occasions- to family, to charity?

You do not need to answer all of these at length. Even a few sentences on what matters most to you is more useful than nothing.

Who will be your certificate provider?

This is a role many people do not know about until the form asks for it.

A certificate provider is an independent person who confirms two things: that you have the mental capacity to make the LPA, and that you are not being pressured into it by anyone. They sign a section of the form before it is sent to the OPG.

They must be either:

• Someone who has known you personally for at least two years (a friend, a colleague- not a family member and not one of your attorneys), or
• A professional with relevant skills- a doctor, a solicitor, a social worker

They do not need to be present at the same time as your attorneys. But they do need to meet with you in person or by video to discuss the LPA before they sign.

Think now about who this might be. It is often the thing that causes the most delay at the last minute.

Do you want to appoint a replacement attorney?

If your chosen attorney dies, loses capacity, or for any reason can no longer act, and you have not named a replacement, your LPA may fail; or a remaining attorney may end up acting alone in ways you did not intend. Also think about the age of your primary vs replacement of attorneys in relation to each other and yourself i.e. you are not picking someone who is significantly decades older than yourself and may not be around later in life.

A replacement attorney steps in automatically in those circumstances. They do not have any power until and unless they are needed.

It is not obligatory. But for most people, it is worth including. Think about whether there is a second tier of people you trust- perhaps less than your primary choices, but enough.

Have you told your attorneys?

This sounds obvious. It is more often skipped than you would think.

Your attorneys need to know they have been appointed. They need to understand what the role involves. And honestly the conversation itself is worth having. It is where you find out whether your chosen person actually understands your wishes, shares your values on the hard questions, and is willing to take on the responsibility.

I had those conversations. They were not easy. They were also among the most meaningful I have had. Talking about what you would want, with people who care about you, is clarifying in ways that go beyond the paperwork.

Do not skip it.

Part Two: The Step-by-Step Process

Once you have done the thinking, the doing is more straightforward than most people expect. Here is how it works.

Step 1: Create your gov.uk account

Go to www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney and create a GOV.UK One Login account if you do not already have one. This is the account you will use to access the LPA service. Your progress saves as you go, so you do not need to complete the form in one session.

You will need to make a separate LPA for each type - Health and Welfare, and Property and Financial Affairs. They are two distinct documents, though the process for each is the same.

Step 2: Fill in the form

The online tool asks you for:

• Your details (the donor i.e. you)
• Your attorneys' details- name, date of birth, address, email address
• How you want your attorneys to act (jointly, jointly and severally, or a combination)
• Your certificate provider's details
• Any people to notify (optional- people the OPG will write to before registering the LPA, giving them a chance to raise concerns)
• Your instructions and preferences (see Part One above)

Take your time on the instructions and preferences section. Everything else is factual and quick. This section is where your LPA becomes yours rather than a generic document.

Step 3: Print and sign, in the right order

This is the step where most errors happen, and errors mean rejection and delays.

The LPA must be signed in a specific sequence. The order matters legally:

1. You (the donor) sign first, in front of a witness
2. Your certificate provider signs next
3. Each of your attorneys signs, each in front of their own witness

Witnesses must be over 18, must not be attorneys on the same LPA, and must not be family members of anyone signing. Your attorneys can witness each other's signatures only if they are signing as jointly and severally appointed, check the guidance carefully.

Do not sign out of order. Do not backdate. The OPG checks these things, and mistakes result in the form being returned.

Note: The signing sequence above reflects the standard process. The gov.uk online service was updated in November 2024 and may guide you through signatures slightly differently. Always follow the instructions shown in your specific online journey, and check the latest guidance at gov.uk/power-of-attorney if in doubt.

Step 4: Register with the OPG

Once all signatures are in place, you register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian. If you completed the form online, you submit it through the same gov.uk account. You can also post the completed paper form.

The registration fee is £92 per LPA - so £184 for both. This is payable to the OPG at the point of registration. Fee reductions and exemptions are available based on income; check the current criteria at gov.uk, as these are updated periodically.

Step 5: Wait

Registration currently takes 14 to 20 weeks. This is not a typo. It is one of the most important things to understand about LPAs: there is no fast-track option. The OPG is required to allow a four-week notice period during which named parties can raise objections, and processing time adds to this.

You cannot use the LPA until it is registered. It has no legal effect before that point.

This is why the single most important thing you can do today is start.

Step 6: Keep it safe and tell people where it is

Once your registered LPA comes back, store the original somewhere safe but accessible. A filing cabinet at home, a solicitor's safe, or with a trusted person. Make sure your attorneys know where it is.

If your attorneys ever need to use the LPA- at a hospital, a bank, a care home- they will need to be able to produce it. A registered LPA can also be verified online through the OPG's Use a Lasting Power of Attorney service, which is increasingly accepted by financial institutions.

A Final Note

I have been putting off writing this companion piece for longer than I should admit, because starting it meant thinking carefully through all of these questions myself. That is probably not a coincidence.

These are not comfortable questions. But they are important and generous ones- to the people you are giving the right to make decisions of life and death on your behalf. To know they are doing it in line with your wishes. To know they are doing their best, in your interest, with your blessing.

I am making both LPAs. I have had the conversations. I know who my attorneys are and why I chose them. I am going to sit down with the gov.uk tool and work through it, one section at a time, without rushing the parts that matter.

I hope you do too.

The official tool to start your LPA:

👉 www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney

👉 OPG Website

This article is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. For complex circumstances including business interests, estranged family members, or concerns about capacity, consider consulting a solicitor specialising in this area.

Neha Mehta is a Chartered Accountant, financial coach and SEN parent. She works with SEN families, immigrants and UK professionals at Steady Steps Finance. If you would like to talk through your own situation, you can book a free introductory call here.