Property and Financial Affairs LPA: what it covers
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA authorises your attorney to manage the financial side of your life. In practical terms, this is broad. Your attorney can:
- Access and operate your bank and building society accounts
- Pay your bills and manage your regular outgoings
- Buy and sell property on your behalf
- Manage your investments and savings
- Deal with your tax affairs, including submitting returns and corresponding with HMRC
- Claim benefits and allowances you are entitled to
- Make gifts on your behalf - within defined limits
- Deal with business interests, where the LPA, business structure and company documents allow it
The financial LPA can be used while you still have mental capacity, if you want someone to help manage your affairs - or it can be restricted to coming into effect only when you lose capacity. This is a choice you make when the LPA is created.
What a financial attorney cannot do
The authority granted by a financial LPA is genuinely wide, but it has important limits that are frequently misunderstood.
Unlimited gifting
An attorney can make gifts on your behalf, but only within limits set by the Mental Capacity Act. They may make small customary gifts on special occasions, and to charities the donor supported, subject to affordability and best interests. Significant gifts usually need Court of Protection approval.
Changing your Will
An attorney has no authority to alter your Will. Your Will is a separate legal document that can only be changed by you, while you have capacity. An attorney cannot redirect your estate, remove beneficiaries, or add themselves as a recipient. If they attempt to do so, the change has no legal effect.
Acting after your death
An LPA ceases to have effect the moment you die. At that point, the authority to deal with your estate passes to your executors under your Will - or to administrators if you have no Will. An attorney has no power to act after death, regardless of what the LPA says.
Health and Welfare LPA: what it covers
A Health and Welfare LPA gives your attorney authority over the personal, rather than financial, aspects of your life. This includes:
- Where you live - whether you remain at home, move to a care home, or live with a family member
- The day-to-day care you receive - diet, daily routine, who provides personal care
- Medical treatment decisions - consenting to or refusing treatment on your behalf
- Life-sustaining treatment - if you grant this authority explicitly in the LPA
A Health and Welfare LPA can only be used once you have lost the mental capacity to make the relevant decision yourself. Unlike the financial LPA, it cannot be used while you retain capacity - even with your consent.
Advance Decisions and the Health LPA
A separate document - an Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (sometimes called a living Will) - allows you to refuse specific medical treatments in advance. It sits alongside, rather than inside, the Health and Welfare LPA.
If you have both, the relationship between them matters. A valid, applicable Advance Decision takes precedence over an attorney's wishes about the treatment it covers. An attorney cannot override a properly made Advance Decision. For this reason, it is important that both documents are drafted with an awareness of the other - and that your attorney knows both documents exist.
The best interests requirement
Whatever type of LPA is in use, your attorney is legally required to act in your best interests. This is not just a moral obligation - it is a legal standard set out in the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Acting in best interests means considering your past and present wishes, your values and beliefs, and consulting people close to you where relevant.
An attorney who acts for their own benefit, or contrary to your best interests, is acting unlawfully. The Office of the Public Guardian can investigate attorneys and, in serious cases, apply to the Court of Protection to have them removed.
What happens if attorneys disagree
If you appoint more than one attorney to act jointly - meaning they must agree on every decision - a disagreement between them can bring things to a standstill. This is one reason why the choice of how attorneys act matters as much as who you choose.
Attorneys appointed jointly and severally can each act independently, which avoids deadlock. Where joint appointment is appropriate, it is worth thinking carefully about whether the people you are naming can actually work together under pressure - and whether a replacement attorney provides a sensible fallback if the arrangement breaks down.
Replacement attorneys
You can name one or more replacement attorneys who step in if your original attorney is unable or unwilling to continue. A replacement attorney only acts if a gap arises - they have no authority while the original attorney is in place.
Naming a replacement is strongly advisable. Circumstances change. An attorney you trust completely today may predecease you, lose their own capacity, or simply find the role too burdensome. Without a replacement, the LPA may become unworkable - and the Court of Protection would need to appoint a deputy instead.
The information in our guides is provided for general information only and is not a substitute for advice based on your individual circumstances.
Wills, trusts, inheritance tax, Lasting Powers of Attorney and estate planning can be complex, and the right approach will depend on your family, finances, assets and wishes. Laws, tax rules, allowances and guidance can also change over time.
You should not act, or decide not to act, solely on the basis of the information in these guides. Where appropriate, you should obtain personalised legal, financial or tax advice before making any decisions.
Reading a guide or completing the Family Risk Review does not create a client relationship with Prime Wills & Estate Planning.