An LPA is the document that lets someone you trust step in and act for you if you can't act for yourself. Without one, your family has to apply to the Court of Protection, and that takes months and costs thousands. With one, they pick up the phone. This guide explains the three LPAs we draft, how they differ, and the decisions that catch people out, in plain English.

What an LPA actually is

A Lasting Power of Attorney is made under the Mental Capacity Act 2005. It appoints people you trust, your attorneys, to make decisions for you when you cannot. It has to be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before it can be used, and you can only make one while you still have the capacity to understand what you are granting. That is the whole point, and the whole trap: the moment you actually need an LPA is the moment you can no longer make one.

Do it while it is boring paperwork. Once capacity is gone, the only route left is a Deputyship application to the Court of Protection, which takes 6 to 12 months, costs several thousand pounds, and carries ongoing supervision.

The three products

Personal LPA, Property and Financial (LP1F). Lets your chosen attorneys deal with your money, your house, your bills, your bank, your investments, and HMRC on your behalf. You choose whether they can act while you still have capacity, helpful if you travel or if physical illness makes life admin hard, or only once you have lost it.

Personal LPA, Health and Welfare (LP1H). Lets your attorneys make decisions about your medical care, where you live, and your day-to-day welfare when you can't. It includes a specific choice about whether they can consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment on your behalf. It can only be used once you have lost capacity, never before.

Business Owner LPA. The one most firms miss. If you are a company director, an LLP member, or a sole trader and you are suddenly out of action, your personal attorneys cannot sign contracts, operate the business account, or make employment decisions for your company. The Business Owner LPA is a separate LPA scoped to your business affairs, with different attorneys, usually a co-director or senior colleague who knows how the business runs. It is not an upsell to your personal LPA. It is a completely different product for a completely different problem.

The decisions that catch people out

How your attorneys act. Jointly means all of them must agree and sign every decision, safe-feeling but fragile: if one dies, goes abroad or loses capacity, the whole LPA fails unless you named replacements. Jointly and severally means any one can act alone, more flexible and far more robust. Most people should appoint attorneys jointly and severally, with replacements.

Section 5, life-sustaining treatment. On the Health and Welfare LPA you must choose whether your attorneys can consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment (Option A), or whether that decision stays with your doctors (Option B). There is no default. Leave it blank and the LPA is rejected. It is the hardest decision on the form, and we walk you through it before you commit.

LPA versus Advance Decision. A Health and Welfare LPA appoints a person to decide for you. An Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment is you refusing a specific treatment in advance, in your own words. DNACPR forms and ReSPECT plans are clinical records, not legal documents you make. They all do different jobs and most people benefit from more than one.

The certificate provider. Getting the wrong certificate provider is one of the most common ways LPAs are rejected. The rules on who can and cannot sign are strict, and we check them before you commit.

How Bonsai does it differently

• Intake through our online questionnaire, not a blank OPG form dumped on you to fill in yourself.
• We draft the tricky bits, business scope, preferences and instructions, from our own template library, so you are never staring at an empty box wondering what to write.
• We do the certificate provider properly, the single most common cause of rejection.
• We track the OPG registration for you. It takes weeks. We chase, you don't.
• A signing pack is included: an unambiguous, in-order checklist so nobody signs the wrong page at the wrong time.
• Business Owner LPAs come with an articles and shareholders' agreement review as standard. If your LPA conflicts with your company's articles, it is worthless. We check.

Every LPA is reviewed by a qualified Bonsai Law solicitor before it goes back to you. The AI supports the review; it does not do the review.

What it costs

Our fees are fixed and quoted before you start, so there are no hourly surprises. All figures are from, and exclude VAT:

• Financial LPA only (LP1F), from £395
• Health and Welfare LPA only (LP1H), from £450
• Both personal LPAs together, from £695, a saving on the two bought separately
• Business Owner LPA, from £995, including the articles and shareholders' agreement review
• Full personal set plus Business Owner, from £1,395, the belt-and-braces option most business owners take
• Couples, mirror pairs from £1,195, or from £1,995 for the full set mirror

On top of our fee, the Office of the Public Guardian charges a registration fee of £82 per LPA. That is a government charge, not ours, and it is separate from everything above. If your income is under £12,000 or you receive a qualifying benefit, you may pay half or nothing, and our questionnaire completes the fee-remission application (form LPA120) for you automatically.

A standalone Advance Decision, drafted separately from any LPA, is a bespoke piece of work: we handle it through our Estate Planning Review at £295 plus VAT, credited against your LPA fee if you instruct within 30 days. The current fixed fees always live on the LPAs page.

The alternative: Court of Protection Deputyship

It is worth understanding what happens if you do not have an LPA and you lose capacity, because it is the whole reason the LPA is worth doing early.

Without an LPA, nobody, not your spouse, not your business partner, not your adult children, has automatic legal authority over your affairs. The only route is for someone to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your Deputy. In practice that means:

• Time. A Deputyship application currently takes roughly 6 to 12 months to be granted. During that period your finances can be frozen and decisions stall.
• Cost. Application fees, a capacity assessment, and usually solicitor's costs run to several thousand pounds, far more than an LPA.
• Ongoing supervision. A Deputy is supervised by the Office of the Public Guardian for as long as the appointment lasts, with an annual supervision fee and annual reports to file.
• Narrower powers. A Deputy generally has less freedom than an attorney and may have to go back to court for specific decisions, such as selling a property or making a gift.
• Someone else's choice. The court decides who is appointed. It is usually a close relative, but it does not have to be the person you would have chosen, and health and welfare deputyships are rarely granted at all.

An LPA made while you still have capacity avoids all of this. You choose who acts, you set the terms, it costs a fraction, and there is no ongoing court supervision. That is the trade in one line: a boring afternoon now, or your family in court for the best part of a year later.

Ready when you are

The OPG rejects roughly 15% of LPAs on first submission, almost always for fixable reasons a solicitor review would catch. Fifteen minutes on the questionnaire, a solicitor's draft next week, and the paperwork sits in the drawer, waiting, done properly, before you need it.

See the LPAs page for the full product breakdown and fixed fees, or read more in our guides on LPA vs Advance Decision, the Business Owner LPA, five reasons the OPG rejects LPAs, and the LPA self-audit.

This guide is general information, not legal advice. An LPA drafted through this service is legal work carried out under a formal retainer with Bonsai Law, regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority (SRA No. 8000734).