The document that prevents a second crisis
When an older person''s health fails, families discover a cruel gap in the system: needing to make decisions — pay the care home, manage the bank account, agree to treatment — but having no legal authority to do so. The bank will not talk to you. The care home needs someone who can sign. And if capacity has already been lost, it is too late to fix it the easy way. A Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) is the document that prevents this, and the single most important piece of planning any family can do — ideally years before it is needed, while everyone is well.
The two types of LPA
In England and Wales there are two separate LPAs, and most families need both:
- Property and Financial Affairs. Lets your attorney manage money — bank accounts, bills, pensions, benefits, buying and selling property, and paying care fees. This one can be used (with the donor''s permission) even while the person still has capacity, which makes it practical for helping a parent who is physically frail but mentally sharp. It is the LPA a care home and a bank will ask about constantly.
- Health and Welfare. Lets your attorney make decisions about medical treatment, care arrangements, and where the person lives — but only once the person has lost the capacity to make those decisions themselves. It can include authority over life-sustaining treatment if the donor chooses. This is the LPA that lets you agree a care home placement or a treatment plan when your parent no longer can.
(Scotland uses Continuing and Welfare Powers of Attorney; Northern Ireland has its own Enduring Power of Attorney regime moving toward LPAs. The principle is identical — get the authority in place while capacity exists.)
Why "before" is the whole point
An LPA can only be made while the person still has mental capacity to understand and agree to it. This is the fact that catches families out. Once dementia or a stroke removes capacity, the door closes — no amount of family agreement, love, or obvious need can create an LPA after the fact. What is left is the slow, expensive alternative: applying to the Court of Protection to become a deputy. Deputyship costs far more, takes months, involves ongoing supervision and annual fees, and gives the court — not the family — the final say on what the deputy may do. Everything an LPA does in an afternoon at the kitchen table, deputyship does slowly and expensively through a court. The lesson is stark: the cheap, easy version is only available before the crisis.
How to set one up
- Register with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG). An LPA must be registered before it can be used; registration takes some weeks, so do it well ahead of need, not when the crisis hits.
- You can do it yourself through the government service for a modest registration fee (with fee reductions or exemptions for low incomes), or use a solicitor for more complex family or financial situations — worth it where there are blended families, business assets, or any risk of dispute.
- Choose attorneys carefully — usually more than one, and consider how they must act (jointly, or jointly and severally, so one can act alone if needed). Name replacements in case an attorney can no longer serve.
- A certificate provider — an independent person or professional — must confirm the donor understands the LPA and is not under pressure. This is the safeguard against coercion.
What it unlocks for care
With both LPAs registered, the family can actually function during a care transition: the Property and Financial attorney arranges the local authority financial assessment, sets up fee payments, manages the deferred payment agreement or the house sale; the Health and Welfare attorney agrees the care home placement and the care plan when the person cannot. Without them, every one of those steps stalls against a bank, a council or a home that has no one with authority to deal with.
The takeaways
- Make both LPAs while everyone is well — it is the highest-value hour of admin a family will ever do.
- Register them promptly; an unregistered LPA cannot be used when you suddenly need it.
- If capacity is already gone, start the Court of Protection deputyship process without delay — it only gets more urgent.
- Review attorneys periodically as family circumstances change.
Where Curalune fits in
An LPA makes the decisions possible; it does not make them for you. When the time comes to choose a care home, Curalune Care Help prepares a shortlist of 3–5 homes around your area matched to your situation and funding, with contacts and a ready-to-send enquiry — so the attorney has real options to act on. LPA rules, fees and registration should always be confirmed with the Office of the Public Guardian or a solicitor.