Lasting Power of Attorney for a parent: what you can, and can't, do

Quick answer: Yes, once your parent's Property & Financial Affairs LPA is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian, you can register it with their bank and manage their accounts on their behalf, provided you always act in their best interests.

Most banks have a dedicated process for registering a Power of Attorney. Once it's set up, you'll typically be able to view statements, pay bills, transfer money and manage day-to-day banking, either online, in branch, or by phone, depending on how the bank handles it.

The most important principle to hold onto throughout is this: it's your parent's money, not yours. You're acting for them, not instead of them. That means keeping their money separate from your own, keeping clear records of what you spend and why, and always being able to explain a transaction if asked.

If your parent still has mental capacity, a Property & Financial Affairs LPA can often be used with their ongoing knowledge and consent, rather than only kicking in once capacity is lost. It's worth checking with them, and with us, how they'd like it used while they're still able to be involved in decisions.

Yes, but only for your parent's benefit, not your own. As an attorney, you can use their money to pay their bills, cover care costs, maintain their home, and meet their everyday needs. What you can't do is use it to benefit yourself, even informally, even if you're confident they'd be happy for you to.

Gifts are a common grey area. You can make modest gifts on customary occasions, birthdays, weddings, religious festivals, or continue charitable donations your parent would normally have made, as long as they're reasonable relative to the size of their estate. Anything larger or unusual needs permission from the Court of Protection first, it isn't something an attorney can simply decide alone.

Keep receipts, keep records, and keep your parent's finances entirely separate from your own. The Office of the Public Guardian has the power to investigate concerns about how an attorney is acting, and in serious cases, misuse of a Power of Attorney can be treated as fraud. Acting properly protects you as much as it protects your parent.

Yes, an attorney can sell a parent's property under a registered Property & Financial Affairs LPA, provided it's genuinely in your parent's best interests, most commonly to fund residential care fees, or because the property has become unsuitable or unmanageable for them.

You'll need to get a proper market valuation and act transparently throughout, exactly as your parent would be expected to if they were selling it themselves.

One important exception: if you, or another family member, want to buy the property yourselves, ordinary attorney authority isn't enough. That's a conflict of interest, and it requires specific permission from the Court of Protection before it can go ahead, regardless of how fair the price is.

Not quite, and this is one of the most common misunderstandings we come across. A Lasting Power of Attorney can only be created by the person it's for, your parent, while they still have the mental capacity to understand what they're signing. You can't set one up on their behalf, however good your reasons.

What you can do is everything around that decision: raise the subject gently, arrange the appointment, be present to support them, and help gather the information needed. The actual decisions, and the signature, have to be theirs. You can read more about what an LPA actually involves if you're helping a parent understand the process for the first time.

If your parent has already lost capacity, an LPA can no longer be created at all, for them or by anyone else. At that point the only route left is applying to the Court of Protection for a Deputyship, a process that's slower, more expensive, and more restrictive than an LPA would have been. If there's any urgency around a health situation, it really is worth acting sooner rather than later.

If dementia is part of the picture, a diagnosis alone doesn't automatically rule out making an LPA, it depends on their capacity for this specific decision.