How to Choose LPA Attorney UK
The Decision That Matters More Than the Form
Most people spend their energy worrying about the LPA paperwork. The decision that actually determines whether your LPA works when it matters is who you appoint — and how you structure their authority.
Get this wrong, and a perfectly valid, OPG-registered LPA can still fail you in practice. An attorney who cannot handle conflict, who lives abroad and cannot attend bank appointments, or who disagrees fundamentally with your healthcare values can create paralysis at exactly the moment you need someone to act.
Jointly vs Jointly and Severally — What the Choice Actually Means
When you appoint more than one attorney, the LPA form asks how they should make decisions. The two options carry very different practical consequences.
Jointly means every attorney must agree on every decision. If one attorney is travelling, incapacitated, or simply unresponsive, nothing can happen. If one attorney dies or becomes unable to act, the entire LPA fails — unless you have appointed replacement attorneys.
Jointly and severally means any single attorney can act independently. This is faster and more flexible, but it means one attorney could sell property, move money, or consent to medical treatment without consulting the others.
For most families, jointly and severally is the more practical choice for a Property and Financial Affairs LPA. Banking, bill payments, and property management need someone who can act quickly. You can add specific restrictions in Section 7 of the LPA — for example, requiring all attorneys to agree on property sales above a certain value, while allowing any single attorney to handle routine finances.
For a Health and Welfare LPA, jointly and severally also tends to work better in practice. Medical decisions sometimes happen in acute settings where convening multiple attorneys is impossible. A sole-acting attorney can respond to an emergency admission without waiting for consensus.
When to Appoint Replacement Attorneys
A replacement attorney steps in if an original attorney dies, loses capacity, disclaims their appointment, or (for a Property and Financial Affairs LPA) goes bankrupt.
If you appoint attorneys to act jointly, replacement attorneys are essential — without them, a single attorney's death collapses the entire LPA, forcing the family into a Court of Protection deputyship. With jointly and severally appointments, the surviving attorneys can continue to act, so replacements are less critical but still sensible insurance.
Replacement attorneys do not need to be involved in day-to-day decisions. They can be a trusted friend, a younger family member, or a professional. They only activate when an original attorney can no longer serve.
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Practical Criteria for Choosing Attorneys
The legal test is simply that an attorney must be 18 or older and not bankrupt (for a financial LPA). The practical test is much harder:
- Geography matters. Banks, care homes, and medical teams often want to deal with someone who can attend in person. An attorney based in Australia may struggle to manage a parent's care transitions in England.
- Emotional resilience under pressure. A Health and Welfare attorney may need to refuse life-sustaining treatment on your behalf, potentially against the wishes of other family members or clinical staff. Choose someone who can hold your line.
- Financial literacy (for Property and Financial Affairs). The attorney is personally liable for mismanaging your affairs. Someone who cannot manage their own finances is a poor choice for managing yours.
- Relationship dynamics. Appointing siblings who are already in conflict virtually guarantees deadlock. If your children do not get along, consider appointing one as sole attorney with the other as replacement, or appoint a professional attorney alongside a family member.
The Professional Attorney Option
Solicitors, accountants, and professional deputies can serve as attorneys. They charge fees — typically £150–£300 per hour — which come from the donor's estate. The advantage is neutrality: a professional will not get drawn into family disputes, and they carry professional indemnity insurance.
The OPG supervises professional attorneys more closely than lay attorneys, which adds a layer of accountability.
One Thing People Overlook
The LPA form lets you add preferences and instructions in Section 7. For a Health and Welfare LPA, this is where you can clarify your values — the circumstances under which you would want treatment refused, your views on care home placement, your religious or dietary requirements. These preferences guide your attorney but are not legally binding on them (an ADRT is the legally binding mechanism for treatment refusals).
Our England Advance Directive guide covers how to align your LPA attorney appointments with your ADRT, including the precedence rules that determine which document overrides the other when they conflict — a nuance that catches many families off guard during a medical crisis.
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