Lasting Power of Attorney vs Deputyship: What Is the Difference?
A lasting power of attorney is made while you still have capacity and lets you choose who acts for you. A deputyship is the Court of Protection order your family must seek if you lose capacity without one: slower, costlier and supervised.
Key points
- An LPA is made in advance by someone with capacity; a deputyship is granted by the Court of Protection after capacity has been lost, usually to a relative who applies.
- Registering an LPA costs £92 per document (£184 for both types) and takes 8 to 10 weeks; a deputyship application costs £432 plus a bond, supervision fees and usually a solicitor.
- With an LPA you choose your attorneys and set instructions; with a deputyship the court decides who acts and on what terms, and the deputy reports to the OPG every year.
- Without either, nobody can access your sole accounts or sell your home, however close the relationship; joint accounts may be restricted too.
- LPAs are still signed on paper and witnessed; the digital service under the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 has not yet launched. Enduring powers made before 1 October 2007 remain valid.
- No official average is published for deputyship applications; practitioners typically quote 4 to 12 months for an uncontested property and affairs order, so planning ahead is cheaper and quicker.
A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a document you make while you still have mental capacity, choosing who will manage your money or make health decisions if you later cannot; a deputyship is the court order your family must apply for if you lose capacity without one. The LPA route costs £92 per document to register and takes 8 to 10 weeks. The deputyship route costs £432 just to apply, needs a security bond, annual supervision fees and yearly reports to the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), and, with no official average published, typically takes somewhere between 4 and 12 months from application to order, with contested cases taking longer. This guide compares the two routes in England and Wales: set-up, cost, timing, control, what happens with neither, and where older enduring powers fit in.
What each one is
A lasting power of attorney
An LPA is a legal document under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in which you (the donor) appoint one or more people (attorneys) to make decisions for you. There are two types. A property and financial affairs LPA covers money, bills, benefits, investments and selling or renting your home, and you choose whether it can be used as soon as it is registered or only once you lack capacity. A health and welfare LPA covers where you live, your daily care and medical treatment, including a separate choice about whether your attorneys can accept or refuse life-sustaining treatment; it can only ever be used when you cannot make the decision yourself. You decide who the attorneys are, whether they must act together or can act separately, who replaces them if they cannot act, and you can add binding instructions and non-binding preferences. An LPA must be registered with the OPG before it can be used, and attorneys must follow the Act's principles: assume you have capacity unless it is shown otherwise, help you decide for yourself where possible, respect unwise decisions, act in your best interests and choose the least restrictive option. What a lasting power of attorney is looks at the attorney's role in more depth.
A deputyship
A deputy is appointed by the Court of Protection to make decisions for someone who already lacks capacity and has no valid LPA or enduring power covering the decision. Capacity is judged decision by decision: a person lacks it when an impairment of the mind or brain means they cannot understand, retain, weigh or communicate the information needed for that particular decision. Property and affairs deputies, who manage money, benefits, bills and property, are common. Personal welfare deputies are rare, because the court prefers to decide individual welfare questions itself and to leave day-to-day care decisions to be made in the person's best interests by those looking after them. Anyone over 18 can apply, usually a spouse, child or sibling; where no suitable relative exists the court can appoint a professional deputy, such as a solicitor from its panel, or the local authority. The deputy's powers are set out in the court order, which is usually general for finances but may require a further application for steps such as selling the home, making substantial gifts or making a will on the person's behalf.
Making and registering an LPA: cost and time
The forms (LP1F for finances, LP1H for health and welfare) can be completed by hand or through the GOV.UK online tool, which still produces a document that has to be printed, signed in ink and posted. The signing order matters: the donor signs first, then the certificate provider, then each attorney, with the donor's and each attorney's signature witnessed (the certificate provider's is not). The certificate provider is an independent person who confirms you understand the document and are not being pressured: either someone who has known you well for at least 2 years or a professional such as a solicitor or doctor, and never an attorney, a member of your or an attorney's family, or staff at your care home.
Registration with the OPG costs £92 for each LPA for applications received since 17 November 2025 (the fee had been £82 since 2017), so £184 for both types. The fee is halved if the donor's gross income is below £12,000 a year and waived for donors receiving certain means-tested benefits, claimed on form LPA120, and a corrected re-application within 3 months of an OPG rejection costs £46. GOV.UK currently quotes 8 to 10 weeks to register an LPA that contains no mistakes, including a statutory 3-week period in which anyone notified can object. Errors, most often a missing witness signature or signatures in the wrong order, are the main cause of delay. A solicitor who drafts the documents and oversees the signing charges a fee on top, usually a fixed price per document.
The Powers of Attorney Act 2023, which received Royal Assent on 18 September 2023, will eventually allow a fully digital LPA with identity checks and online registration. As at October 2026 only the section letting chartered legal executives certify copies is in force; the digital service has not launched and no start date has been announced, so paper signing remains the only route.
Applying for a deputyship: cost and time
The application is a bundle: form COP1 with the COP1A (property and affairs) or COP1B (welfare) supplement, a capacity assessment on form COP3 completed by a doctor, psychologist or other qualified professional (who will usually charge for it), and a COP4 declaration in which the proposed deputy discloses their own finances and circumstances. The applicant must then notify the person concerned in person, and at least three relatives or close contacts, who have 14 days to object.
The court fee has been £432 since 13 July 2026 (up from £421), payable for each application; if a hearing is needed, usually because someone objects, there is a further £266. When the order is made the OPG charges a £100 assessment fee for a new deputy, then an annual supervision fee of £320, or £35 where the deputy manages assets below about £21,000, due each 31 March. Fees come out of the person's own money, not the applicant's, and can be reduced or waived through form COP44A where the person's income is under £12,000 or they receive certain benefits. Property deputies must also buy a security bond, an insurance policy against misuse whose annual premium depends on the value of the assets, and submit an annual report accounting for every significant transaction.
Timing is where deputyship hurts. No official average is published for deputyship applications; practitioners typically quote roughly 4 to 12 months for an uncontested property and affairs order, and solicitors advise families to plan for the longer end of that range, because a query, a missing document or an objection restarts the waiting. The court can make an interim order where care fees or a mortgage must be paid urgently. Legal aid is rarely available for property and affairs applications, though the guide to free legal help explains the exceptions, and a solicitor's fees for making the application are generally recoverable from the person's estate at rates fixed by the court.
Cost, control and oversight compared
The two routes differ in who is in charge. With an LPA you choose the people, define their powers and can revoke or replace the document at any time while you still have capacity. With a deputyship the court chooses, on the application of whoever comes forward, and the terms are the court's; the person at the centre has no say because, by definition, they can no longer make the decision. An LPA can cover health and welfare; a deputyship almost never does.
The costs point the same way: £92 per LPA, plus optional legal fees, and nothing afterwards, against £432 to apply for a deputyship, £100 on appointment, a bond premium and £320 a year in supervision fees for as long as it lasts, plus the capacity assessment and usually a solicitor. Oversight differs too: attorneys are not supervised unless someone raises a concern, at which point the OPG investigates and can ask the court to revoke the LPA, whereas deputies are supervised throughout. Both attorneys and deputies must act in the person's best interests, keep the person's money separate from their own and limit gifts to customary occasions and reasonable amounts, and both roles end at death, when the executors take over.
What happens if you have neither
If you lose capacity with no LPA or enduring power in place, nobody, including a spouse, can lawfully operate your sole bank accounts, and a third-party mandate or ordinary power of attorney stops working at that moment. Banks will often restrict or freeze a joint account once told that one holder lacks capacity, although practice varies. Your home cannot be sold, let or re-mortgaged to pay for care; if it is jointly owned, the co-owner cannot sell alone and needs a Court of Protection order appointing someone to act in your place. The one shortcut is state benefits and the State Pension, which a relative can manage as a Department for Work and Pensions appointee without going to court. Health and care decisions are made by the professionals treating you in your best interests, consulting your family but not bound by them. In Scotland the equivalents are a continuing or welfare power of attorney registered with the Scottish Public Guardian and, failing that, a guardianship order from the sheriff court; Northern Ireland still uses enduring powers of attorney for finances and "controllership" orders, and has no LPAs.
Enduring powers of attorney
Enduring powers of attorney (EPAs) were replaced by LPAs on 1 October 2007, but an EPA validly signed before that date remains effective. It covers property and finances only and does not need registering until the donor is becoming, or has become, unable to manage their affairs, at which point the attorney must notify the donor and at least three relatives, who have 35 days to object, and register with the OPG for the same £92 fee. An EPA cannot be amended, so a donor who still has capacity can add a health and welfare LPA alongside it.
Do you need a solicitor
Many people make straightforward LPAs themselves using the GOV.UK forms, and the OPG's guidance is good. A solicitor is worth considering where you want tailored instructions (about investments or paying for care, say), where a business or complex finances are involved, where family relationships are strained and a challenge is possible, or where your capacity might later be questioned, because a solicitor acting as certificate provider and keeping a note of the meeting is strong evidence that the LPA was valid. For deputyship, the forms are long, mistakes cost months and most applicants use a solicitor; where no family member is suitable, a solicitor can act as professional deputy at rates set by the court.
Will solicitors usually offer LPAs alongside wills, often at a reduced combined price, so it is worth asking when you look at how much a will costs; wills, trusts and probate explained gives the wider picture. You can compare solicitors in Newcastle upon Tyne for wills and powers of attorney or search wills solicitors in Nottingham. Whatever you decide, do it while the choice is still yours: once capacity has gone, the deputyship route is the only one left.
Frequently asked questions
Can someone with dementia still make a lasting power of attorney?
Often, yes. A diagnosis is not the same as lacking capacity: the test is whether the person can understand what an LPA is, who they are appointing and what powers they are giving, at the time they sign. The Mental Capacity Act presumes capacity unless the contrary is shown. Where there is any doubt, a capacity assessment by a doctor and a solicitor acting as certificate provider protect the document from later challenge. Once capacity has gone, only a deputyship is possible.
Can a deputy make health and welfare decisions?
Rarely. The Court of Protection appoints personal welfare deputies only in unusual cases, for example where a series of linked decisions about a young adult with a lifelong disability is needed. Otherwise specific welfare questions go to the court as one-off applications, and everyday care and treatment decisions are made in the person's best interests by the professionals involved after consulting the family. A health and welfare LPA is the only way to choose in advance who decides.
How much does a deputyship cost in total?
Expect the £432 application fee, a fee to the professional who completes the capacity assessment, the £100 new deputy assessment fee, the annual security bond premium, which depends on the assets involved, and a £320 (or £35) supervision fee every year the order lasts, plus solicitor's fees if you use one. All of it is paid from the person's own funds, and the court fees can be reduced or waived where their income is under £12,000.
Can attorneys or deputies be paid for their time?
Family attorneys and deputies can reclaim reasonable expenses such as travel and postage but are not paid for their time unless, for an attorney, the LPA expressly provides for it. Professional attorneys and deputies, usually solicitors, charge fees: an attorney under the terms of the LPA, a deputy at fixed or assessed rates set by the Court of Protection. In every case the money comes from the funds of the person being looked after.
What if the family disagrees about who should be appointed?
With an LPA, the people the donor chose to notify have 3 weeks after notification to object to the OPG or the court on limited grounds, such as fraud or undue pressure. With a deputyship, anyone notified of the application has 14 days to file an objection, after which the court decides, usually at a hearing with a further £266 fee, and contested cases take considerably longer. Where no relative is suitable, the court can appoint a professional deputy instead.
Does an LPA or deputyship continue after death?
No. Both end at the moment of death and the executors or administrators of the estate take over. Attorneys should send the original LPA and a copy of the death certificate to the OPG, and a deputy must file a final report and stop acting. Anything the attorney or deputy did while the person was alive remains valid, and they must hand over their records and accounts so that the estate can be administered.
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This guide describes the law in England and Wales as at 30 October 2026. It is general information, not legal advice about your situation; the law and the figures it quotes change, so check the position with a solicitor before acting. LawFirms.co.uk is a directory and does not provide legal services.