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How To Create A Power Of Attorney

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How to Create a Lasting Power of Attorney in the U.K.

If you were ever incapacitated, and unable to speak for yourself, you need somebody to take care of things for you. The problem is, that you cannot appoint that person once you are incapacitated. You have to do this ahead of time, and then that appointment will come into effect if you were ever to find yourself in that position.

The document you would create is called a Power of Attorney. Within this document you will appoint an "attorney" who will act as your representative in the event that you lose capacity.

There are two main types of Power of Attorney:

A document that appoints somebody to make medical decisions on your behalf, known as a Power of Attorney for Health and Welfare
A document that appoints somebody to take care of your finances, known as a Power of Attorney for Property and Financial Affairs

What is the purpose of a Power of Attorney?

Many Power of Attorney documents are created and never used. Most people who create a Power of Attorney do so in case they were ever in a situation where they were unable to speak for themselves. This can happen suddenly, after a road accident, or sudden illness. Or it can happen gradually, if you were to suffer from a degenerative illness like dementia or Alzheimer's.

If you never experience this type of your situation, your Power of Attorney will simply stay in your drawer, and never be used. However, if you are unable to handle your own decision making, then the document is invaluable. It must be created whilst you are capable, and comes into effect if you lose that capacity.

Are there different types of Power of Attorney?

It is possible to create a Power of Attorney that comes into effect immediately, but this isn't really a part of estate planning, and not something that we deal with. The most popular estate planning tool is a Lasting Power of Attorney (sometimes called an Enduring Power of Attorney or a Continuous Power of Attorney). The official term in the UK, is a Lasting Power of Attorney or LPA.

There are two types of LPA, one that covers medical decisions, called an LPA for Health and Welfare, and one that covers money and finances, called an LPA for Property and Financial Affairs.

Why do you not have an LPA service at LegalWills.co.uk?

In order for a Lasting Power of Attorney to be valid, it must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. The cost for doing this is currently £82 for each document. There is no way to avoid this fee. It must be paid in order to create a legal LPA.

But the Office of the Public Guardian do provide a free tool to prepare the document, that then allows you to submit your document to the Office.

There is absolutely nothing that we (or any other service provider) can do to add value to this process. You should not pay anybody to prepare an LPA for you. It is free to use the online tool provided by the Office of the Public Guardian.

If any Will writer or online service offers to prepare an LPA for you, for a fee, you are being ripped off.

How can I create a Lasting Power of Attorney?

You should go to https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney.

On this website is all of the information that you need to prepare a Lasting Power of Attorney. You can complete the process all online, or alternatively print off the required forms.

Do I need to register the document?

Yes. Currently the cost of registering an LPA is £82. However, if your income before tax is less than £12,000 a year, you'll only need to pay half - this is known as a "50% remission".

There is more information about this at https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney.

Can I include this information in my Last Will and Testament?

No. A Lasting Power of Attorney is in effect while you are alive. It is immediately cancelled the moment you die. Your "attorney" has absolutely no authority once you have died. At the moment of death, your Last Will and Testament comes into effect. After death, the Executor named in your Will takes over the responsibility for your estate finances.

A Lasting Power of Attorney and a Last Will and Testament are never in effect at the same time. You cannot combine these two documents into a single document.

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When you create a Will or legal document at LegalWills, you can designate up to 20 different Keyholders®. Your chosen Keyholders® will be given the trust and power to unlock specific information within your account such as health care directives, funeral wishes, final messages, uploaded files, Power of Attorney, or Last Will and Testament.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Do I need a solicitor to write my Will?

There is absolutely no legal requirement to use the services of a solicitor to prepare your Will.

The law requires that the Will is written on a piece of paper and then signed by you in the presence of two witnesses. Once it is signed and witnessed, it becomes a legal Last Will and Testament.

If you need legal advice, you should secure the services of a solicitor, but most people do not need legal advice to prepare a Will. Especially if they are using a service like the one at LegalWills.co.uk.

Why are you so much cheaper than a solicitor?

When you write your Will with a solicitor, you are paying for their training, so that if you needed custom clauses written for unique situations, they would probably be able to do this for you. However, most Wills do not require unique new clauses to be written, and the vast majority of Wills are a compilation of known legal "precedents".

Most solicitors use Will writing software to prepare Wills, and we use that exact same software, but give you direct access to it. You should really be asking why a solicitor charges £800 for about an hour's work.

If you have unusual circumstances, such as a child with special needs, then you may need legal advice. But for the vast majority, you would be paying premium rates for legal advice that you don't need.

For a more thorough explanation, please read our blog article: How much does it cost to write a Will?.

£49.95 for a Will? What other fees are there?

There are no other payments required to prepare your legal Will. You can have a legal Will in your hands for £49.95 with nothing else to pay, ever.

What other options are there?
If you wish, you can have your Will reviewed by one of our solicitors for £69.00. Most people do not need this, and would not benefit from it, but if you have selected an option such as "None of the above. Let me describe in detail how to distribute my estate.", then you may want to consider this.

Your Will must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. If you do not have access to a printer, we can print it for you and mail it out. The cost for this is £9.95, but again, most people do not need this option.

We also offer other services like MyLifeLocker™ and a Living Will. They are not required, but they may be useful to you depending on your situation.

What about document storage?
We do not store physical documents, but we allow you to maintain an account with us if you want to update your document in the future.

The Will service costs £49.95. With this payment, you are able to prepare your Will. It also gives you one year of unlimited updates to the document. You are able to print the document as often as you wish during that first year. You can download it as a PDF or Word file, but to make your document a legal Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses. The online version is there for your convenience only.

If you choose not to maintain an account with us after the first year, your initial payment is all you will ever pay. We do not keep credit card details on file and cannot automatically charge beyond this initial payment.

If you wish, you can choose to store your documents online for longer than a year, which will make it easier to make updates in the future to reflect any changes in your personal or financial situation (rather than returning to a solicitor each time). This is of course optional, but it does make the process of maintaining your document more convenient. £11.95 will give you one additional year of updates, or you can purchase multiple years: 5 years at £29.95, 10 years at £39.95, 25 years at £79.95 (£3.20 per year).

Every time you make an update to your Will, it must first be printed, and then signed in the presence of two witnesses again. If you choose not to maintain an account with us, you will always have your printed, signed document. If you don't need to make changes to that document, it will last you for the rest of your life, whether or not you have an account with us.

What happens if I don't maintain an account, and then in a few years I need to update it?
If your account has not been touched in years, and it is inactive, we reserve the right to remove the account. You will receive an email notification that your account might be removed. However, in practice, we have never actually removed any accounts in our over 25 years of operation.

So, in all likelihood, you will be able to simply login to your account and pay £11.95 to reactivate it. This will give you one year of unlimited updates from the date of payment. (You will not have to pay for your inactive years.)

Can I also create a Power of Attorney or Living Will?

The UK Lasting Power of Attorney system is controlled by the government. You must use the official government website to create the form, and it must be registered with the government.

Anybody outside of the government who offers a Lasting Power of Attorney service is offering questionable value. The government website does everything that you need, for free. However, the forms must be registered, and this costs £110. There is no way of avoiding this fee.

Go to https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney/overview.

Using the MyLivingWill™ service at LegalWills.co.uk, you can prepare your Advance Directives that work with your Lasting Power of Attorney.

Why should I use LegalWills.co.uk to prepare my Will?

Our answer is different depending on what you are comparing us to.

The service at LegalWills.co.uk is significantly better than a blank form Will kit that you can buy on Amazon or WHSmiths. These blank kits do not check for errors, allow you to do things you are legally not allowed to do, and rarely cover backup scenarios. They are actually the most difficult way to prepare a well drafted Will.

We provide the same quality documents as an estate planning solicitor – often word-for-word identical, because we use the same software that they use. We've just adapted it to make it easier to understand, and given you direct access to it. Therefore, you can create a solicitor grade Will, but from the comfort of your own home at less than a tenth of the price.

When compared to other online services, we have honest, up-front pricing that is better than any equivalent service. We also believe that we have the highest quality service online today. In all the time that we have been in business, never once has one of our Wills had an issue going through the probate process. We also offer best-in-class phone and email support if you get stuck.

Some other highlights:

Help text every step of the way. Every page of our service has additional help text to answer your questions. If you get stuck, send us an email and we can help.
Create your Will from anywhere at any time. Our service works on any computer, phone or tablet. Which means you can create or update your Will in the middle of the night in Timbuktu if you need to.
Unlimited updates. If you write your Will with a solicitor, it could be out of date by the time you get home. You don't face that issue with LegalWills.co.uk. If your circumstances change, simply login to your account, update your document, and sign your new Will. There is no charge for updates as long as you maintain a membership.
Professional reviews by a solicitor. Our service works for the vast majority of situations, but on occasion people have unusual circumstances and need the reassurance of a legal professional's eye. We offer this as an option.
Our other services. We don't just do Will writing. We offer a complete portfolio of services that will help you to plan your estate. We have the LifeLocker® executor tool, that allows you to document all of your personal details and assets, and MyVault™ that lets you upload important files. Together with our Keyholder® mechanism, you can be assured that the right information gets into the right hands at the right time (and not before).
Privacy and security. We do not store any information as plain text. We do not store Wills in our database. All of your information is encrypted on our servers. Nobody can access it except you and your designated Keyholders® at the appropriate time. Furthermore, we do not share, trade or sell any of your data with third parties whatsoever.