Solicitors' charges for preparing Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) vary considerably. Looking across the market, you may see fees ranging from around £500 to £2,000 or more, depending on what is required. This is a general market range, not our fee range.
Our fees are likely to start at around £450.00 plus VAT for one LPA with a relatively straightforward instruction, with the cost increasing where more advice, fact-finding, meetings or individual drafting is required. So, we are well within the typical range of fees, offering excellent value for specialist advice. We will explain the likely cost once we understand what you need.
There is also an Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) registration fee for each LPA.
It can be tempting to see an LPA as simply a form-filling exercise. The forms are prescribed, but they are actually quite technical and fiddly documents. There are important choices about attorneys, replacements, how decisions are made and when powers can be exercised, together with sections allowing you to include your own preferences and instructions.
There are also strict requirements around signing, witnessing, certification and registration. Mistakes can delay registration or, more seriously, create problems which only become apparent years later when the LPA is needed.
This is why many people prefer a solicitor to deal with the process.
When we prepare an LPA, our work is not simply entering information onto the form. We need to understand what you want to achieve, take and record your instructions, explain the implications of the available choices and ensure that the finished documents properly reflect your wishes.
What does a relatively straightforward instruction involve?
A relatively straightforward instruction might involve someone who knows whom they want to appoint, has uncomplicated family and financial circumstances and does not require unusual provisions.
For example, you might want to appoint your spouse and two adult children, allow them to act jointly and severally and appoint an obvious replacement if one of them cannot act.
There may be no family disagreements, business interests, capacity concerns or unusual requirements.
Even in these circumstances, our work involves more than completing the prescribed forms. We need to explain the choices, check that the proposed arrangements work, take and document your instructions, prepare and check the documents, deal with the technical execution requirements and assist with registration.
Our fees for a straightforward LPA instruction are therefore likely to start at around £750 £450.00 plus VAT for one LPA or £750.00 plus VAT for both types of LPA. Once we know whether you require one or both types of LPA and understand your circumstances, we can explain what work is required and the likely cost.
What do we actually do when preparing an LPA?
Even a relatively straightforward instruction normally requires us to:
establish whether you need a Property and Financial Affairs LPA, a Health and Welfare LPA, or both;
understand the relevant aspects of your family, financial and personal circumstances;
discuss who you want to appoint as attorneys and replacements;
explain how two or more attorneys can make decisions;
identify any particular concerns or wishes you have;
advise on whether these should be included as preferences, instructions or dealt with in another way;
take and document your instructions and the advice given;
prepare and check the documents;
explain and manage the signing and witnessing requirements; and
arrange or assist with registration.
The amount of work involved therefore depends considerably on the individual client.
Why might the cost be higher?
An apparently simple instruction can become more involved once we start discussing what the client actually wants.
Additional work may be needed because of:
several attorneys or complicated replacement arrangements;
concerns about attorneys acting independently;
difficult or blended family circumstances;
business interests;
substantial or unusual assets;
overseas assets;
financial dependants;
concerns about vulnerability, capacity or undue influence;
strong views about future care or where you should live;
proposed restrictions on an attorney's powers; or
specific wishes which need additional drafting.
There may also be several meetings or exchanges of correspondence before the final arrangements are agreed.
The additional cost is therefore often not simply for extra words in the LPA. It reflects the fact-finding, advice, taking and recording of instructions and drafting needed to arrive at the right a bespoke document tailored to your needs.
Property and Financial Affairs LPA – what additional provisions might be needed?
A Property and Financial Affairs LPA can potentially give attorneys extensive powers over bank accounts, investments, property and other financial affairs.
Some clients are comfortable with the usual powers available under the LPA. Others have specific concerns or wishes.
For example:
Selling your home - you may want your attorneys to avoid selling your home for as long as reasonably possible, particularly while your spouse or another dependant continues to live there.An absolute prohibition on sale may not be sensible because circumstances could arise where a sale is necessary or clearly in your interests. We would discuss what you are trying to achieve before deciding whether and how this should be expressed.
Investments - You might want your attorneys to continue using a particular financial adviser or to obtain professional investment advice before making significant changes to your investments.Care is needed with the drafting. An instruction which is too restrictive could become impractical if the adviser retires, the firm ceases trading or your investment arrangements change.
Major financial decisions - You may be comfortable allowing any one of your attorneys to deal with ordinary banking and bills but want all of them involved before your home is sold or another particularly significant transaction takes place. This may require additional drafting rather than simply selecting one of the standard options for how attorneys make decisions.
Supporting family members - Perhaps you regularly contribute towards an adult child's living costs, pay school fees for a grandchild or financially support another relative. You may want your attorneys to understand that you would like this support to continue where legally permissible and affordable. Attorneys' powers to make gifts are restricted, so this is an area where careful advice may be needed rather than simply inserting an instruction.
Business interests - If you own a business, the people you trust to manage your personal finances may not necessarily be the people you want making business decisions. Existing company documents, partnership arrangements or shareholder agreements may also need to be considered.
Professional advice - If you have substantial investments, property or business interests, you might want your attorneys to obtain appropriate professional advice before particular major decisions are made.
Health and Welfare LPA – what particular wishes might be included?
A Health and Welfare LPA raises different considerations.
It can cover decisions about matters such as care, medical treatment, daily routine and where you live if you lose capacity to make the relevant decision yourself.
Examples of individual wishes might include:
Remaining at home - You might want your attorneys to explore reasonable options for providing care at home before considering permanent residential care.An instruction that you must never enter a care home could create serious difficulties if your health and care needs eventually make that impossible. A carefully expressed preference may therefore be more appropriate.
Choice and location of care - You may want any residential care to be within reasonable travelling distance of your spouse, children or other people who are important to you. You might also have particular views about the type of environment or facilities you would prefer.
Keeping couples together - You may feel strongly that, where reasonably possible, you and your spouse or partner should continue living together rather than being placed in different care settings.
Contact with family and friends - You may want particular family members or longstanding friends to remain involved in your life and care or to be consulted about important decisions.This can be particularly relevant where family relationships are complicated.
Religious and cultural wishes -You might want your religious beliefs, dietary requirements, cultural practices or other important aspects of your identity taken into account when decisions about your care are made.
Daily life - Your priorities may be very personal. You may want your attorneys to know that being able to go outside regularly, keep a pet, attend a particular club, listen to music, read, attend religious services or maintain particular relationships is especially important to your quality of life.
Medical treatment -You may have particular views about treatment or how you would like your attorneys to approach discussions with doctors.
There is also a specific choice within a Health and Welfare LPA about whether your attorneys should have authority to give or refuse consent to life-sustaining treatment.
Where your wishes about medical treatment are particularly detailed, we may also discuss whether another document, such as an advance decision, should be considered.
Instructions and preferences are different
An instruction is intended to bind your attorneys.
A preference tells them what you would like them to take into account but generally leaves greater flexibility to respond to the circumstances at the time.
For example:
“My attorneys must never sell my house”
is very different from expressing a preference that reasonable alternatives should be considered before your home is sold, particularly while your spouse continues to live there.
Likewise, an absolute instruction that you must never enter residential care may create problems which a strong preference to remain at home for as long as reasonably practicable would avoid.
Part of our work is therefore to understand what you are trying to achieve, how strongly you want to control the decision and whether the proposed provision is appropriate and lawful.
Why fact-finding and recording your instructions matters
An LPA may not be used until many years after it is prepared.
We therefore need enough information about your circumstances to identify issues which could affect how it should operate. We also keep an appropriate record of the decisions you made and the advice you received.
This is particularly important where there are unusual instructions, difficult family relationships, concerns about a proposed attorney, significant assets or business interests, or questions about vulnerability or capacity.
If an LPA is questioned or challenged years later, the contemporaneous record of what the client said, understood and wanted may be important.
Capacity concerns can increase the work involved
A person must have the necessary mental capacity when making an LPA.
Where there are concerns about memory, cognitive impairment, vulnerability or possible influence by another person, additional safeguards may be appropriate.
We may need to spend longer with the client, see them without relatives present, explore their understanding in greater detail and keep a fuller record of the meeting.
In some circumstances, medical evidence or another professional assessment of capacity may also be appropriate.
Why use a solicitor when you can prepare an LPA yourself?
It is possible to prepare and register an LPA yourself and this may suit some people with straightforward circumstances.
Many clients prefer legal assistance because the forms are more technical than they initially appear, the execution requirements are particular and mistakes can create delays or problems.
There is also an important difference between knowing how to complete the form and deciding what the form should say.
Our role is to ask the right questions, explain the consequences of the available choices, identify potential problems, properly record your instructions, draft appropriate individual provisions and ensure that the documents are correctly prepared and registered.
Our approach to LPA fees
We aim to establish at an early stage what you need and whether there are issues likely to require additional advice or drafting.
Where your circumstances and requirements are straightforward, the work and cost should reflect that.
Where more is required, we will explain the issues which need to be considered and why additional work may be necessary.
The objective is not to make an LPA more complicated than it needs to be. It is to ensure that a document which could eventually give somebody else extensive authority over your finances, property, health or welfare properly reflects what you want and works as intended when it is needed.
