29 September 2025

The Lasting Power of Attorney and how we can help

A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is an important legal document that allows you to give someone you trust the authority to make decisions on your behalf. You may be reading this because you already have an LPA that needs to be notarised or legalised, or because you are considering setting one up for the future.

In this blog, we explain what an LPA is, why it’s important, how to make one, and how our notaries can help you every step of the way.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

What is a Lasting Power of Attorney?

A Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to empower someone to carry out your will on your behalf. Unlike the ordinary Power of Attorney you may have also heard of, the LPA is permanent.

Usually, an LPA is used when someone will not be able to make their own decisions in the future due to ill health. Instead, an attorney will make decisions for them when the time comes.

Up to two attorneys can be appointed by you, known as the donor, to make any decisions that may arise in the future on your behalf.

When making an LPA, there are two types that you can choose from, depending on your specific needs. These are:

Health and welfare
Property and financial affairs

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We can then book your appointment at one of our convenient offices in London, Manchester or Sheffield, or you can take advantage of our mobile notary service at a time and place that suits you.

If you want to appoint attorneys to deal with both affairs, then you will need to have two LPAs drafted.

Lasting Powers of Attorney replaced the Enduring Power of Attorney in 2007, so if you come across this old type, you can ignore it.

Please note that the following guidance only applies to England and Wales. Scotland has its own versions of Powers of Attorney, whereas Northern Ireland still uses the Enduring Power of Attorney.

How do I make a Lasting Power of Attorney?

To make an LPA, you will need to be over the age of 18 and have the mental capacity to make your own choices, so that you can understand that you are choosing to empower another person. There can be no coercion or influence by another individual. These same rules apply to any attorneys you appoint.

If you decide to appoint more than one attorney, you can choose to make it so that they can make decisions individually or jointly, or that they can only make them jointly.

You can use the services of a legal professional such as ourselves to draft an LPA for you. This will ensure that your document is drafted to meet all the necessary legal requirements.

Once it has been drafted and your attorneys have been notified of their role, your LPA will need to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. This costs £82 per LPA, and can take 8 to 10 weeks to be registered if everything is correct in the document.

What if I do not make a Lasting Power of Attorney?

Having to make a Lasting Power of Attorney is a stressful situation to be in, and it is difficult to give someone power over choices that affect you.

However, if you do not have an LPA made, then many difficulties could arise in the future when you are no longer able to make your own decisions.

For example, it may become very difficult to pay any bills at home that are in your name, as well as pay for and make decisions on healthcare. Your loved ones will have a much easier time if you have an LPA in place.

The assistance of a professional such as ourselves to assist you with the drafting of an LPA can remove some of the stress from your shoulders, and help you to ensure that any future changes go as smoothly as possible.

How we can help you with a Lasting Power of Attorney

We can assist you with a Lasting Power of Attorney, especially if you need to use it abroad. If you want help making one, then our expert and friendly team can assist you.

Once your document has been drafted, it needs to be signed by the certificate provider, to verify everyone involved is who they say they are. This is all that will be required if you are using it within England and Wales.

Next, if you need to use your LPA abroad, then it will need to go through the notarisation process. This involves one of our notaries providing the LPA with their signature, stamp and seal once they have verified your identity.

When booking your appointment, you can choose to come to one of our offices in London, Manchester or London. Alternatively, you can use our mobile notary service if your appointment is outside of London, which lets you book your appointment at a place of your choice; this could be at your home, office, or somewhere else appropriate.

Legalisation

Once your Lasting Power of Attorney has been notarised, we can then carry out the legalisation of your document. There are different ways a document can be legalised which depend on which country you are going to.

Most countries accept apostilles, which are a relatively straightforward and quick form of legalisation, especially when you have the assistance of a professional; they were introduced by the Hague Apostille Convention. In the UK, apostilles are issued by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.

We offer standard and fast-track apostille packages, which you can learn more about on our linked webpage. Finally, we have a blog on which countries currently accept apostilles if you would like to learn more.

For countries that do not accept apostilles, your Lasting Power of Attorney will need to go through the lengthier and more complex embassy or consulate legalisation processes. Every country will have slightly different requirements for this, so it is incredibly important that you get the assistance of a professional such as ourselves to guide you through the process.