We often meet someone who has set up one LPA and believes they are fully protected. In many cases they are only half protected, and the half they are missing is often the one their family will need most. A Property and Financial Affairs LPA covers your money, bills and property. A Health and Welfare LPA covers your medical treatment, care and living arrangements. One does not cover the other.
Both are created under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian before they can be used. In 2024-25 the OPG received 1.37 million LPA applications, a record high, yet many families still set up only one type, or none at all.
The Property and Financial Affairs LPA
This grants your attorney authority over your money and possessions: managing bank and savings accounts, paying bills and the mortgage, collecting income, pension and benefits, dealing with HMRC, and buying, selling or managing property.
When it can be used: as soon as it is registered, even while you still have capacity, if you choose to allow it. So an attorney can help you now, perhaps with mobility issues or while you are abroad. You keep full control while you have capacity; your attorney acts alongside you, not instead of you.
Without one: banks freeze accounts, bills go unpaid, pensions and benefits cannot be accessed, and even a joint account may be frozen if one holder loses capacity. The only recourse is a Court of Protection deputyship: months of delay and thousands of pounds.
The Health and Welfare LPA
This gives your attorney authority over your personal welfare: where you live, your day-to-day care, your medical treatment, which care providers look after you, and (if you explicitly grant it) life-sustaining treatment.
When it can be used: only once you lack capacity for the specific decision. It does not transfer power while you remain well; it sits registered and ready, activated only when genuinely needed.
Life-sustaining treatment: you must explicitly decide whether to grant your attorney authority over treatment needed to keep you alive. Many families find great comfort in knowing someone who knows their values has the legal standing to speak for them in those moments.
Without one: your next of kin has surprisingly little legal standing. If doctors disagree with your family about your care, the medical team generally has the final word. A family who knows exactly what their relative would have wanted can find themselves unable to make the decisions that matter most.
At a glance
- Covers: money, accounts, bills, property, investments — vs — medical care, living arrangements, daily welfare
- When used: from registration, even with capacity — vs — only when you lack capacity for the decision
- Who acts: someone financially capable — vs — someone who knows your values deeply
- Registration fee: £92 each
Can you appoint different attorneys for each?
Yes, and many people do. You might appoint a financially capable adult child for the Property and Financial Affairs LPA, and a spouse who understands your personal wishes for the Health and Welfare LPA. You can also appoint more than one attorney and specify whether they act jointly, or jointly and severally.
Do you need both?
In almost all cases, yes. Consider a stroke that causes a temporary loss of capacity. With both LPAs, the attorney pays the mortgage and bills while the health and welfare attorney engages with the medical team about care. With only the financial LPA, the family has no voice in care decisions. With only the health LPA, they cannot pay a single bill. With neither, they face the Court of Protection. Creating both together is simpler and more cost-effective, £184 for the pair.
The one rule that overrides everything
An LPA can only be created while you still have full mental capacity. Once it is lost, it is too late. You cannot apply in a crisis or create one retrospectively, and the only fallback is a court deputyship with more restrictions and annual reporting. Registration takes 8 to 10 weeks even for an error-free application, so do not delay.
A note on advance decisions
An Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (a "living Will") is not interchangeable with a Health and Welfare LPA. An Advance Decision lets you refuse specific treatments; an LPA appoints a person to make ongoing decisions across the full range of your care. Most people benefit from both, carefully worded to be consistent.
We help families across North Somerset, Bristol and Bath set up both types of LPA, at home, in plain English, handling all the paperwork and submitting to the OPG correctly first time.