No Power of Attorney in Wales — What Happens When Someone Loses Capacity

Bank Accounts Freeze

The most immediate consequence hits the family's finances. When a bank learns that an account holder has lost mental capacity — through a hospital notification, a branch visit where the person clearly cannot manage, or a family member calling to explain the situation — the bank freezes sole-name accounts.

Joint accounts may continue to operate, but access to sole-name accounts can be restricted, leaving the family unable to manage payments from them.

No family member — not a spouse, not an adult child, not a sibling — has any legal right to access another person's sole bank account without either a registered LPA, a registered EPA, or a court order. Marriage does not create automatic financial authority. Neither does living together for decades.

Medical Decisions Default to Clinical Teams

Without a Health and Welfare LPA, decisions about the person's medical treatment fall to the treating clinicians. They apply the "best interests" assessment under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, which requires them to consult with family members and carers — but the final decision rests with the clinical team, not the family.

In practice, this means:

• The treating clinical team decides whether to proceed with or withdraw treatment
• The treating team and social-care professionals manage the care-placement process, not the spouse or children
• The family can express preferences but cannot overrule a clinical best-interests decision
• If the family disagrees with the clinical team's decision, a Court of Protection application may be needed for a serious dispute

For families in Wales, the care placement decision carries specific financial weight. The Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 sets the residential care capital threshold at £50,000 — meaning capital above £50,000 that is counted in the assessment makes the person a self-funder. Without a financial LPA attorney to negotiate with the local authority, engage with the means test, or apply for a Deferred Payment Agreement, the family cannot act as the person's financial LPA attorney and may need a Court of Protection deputy.

The Deputyship Route

If there is no valid EPA, the route to regain legal authority is through the Court of Protection. A family member (or professional) applies to be appointed as a deputy — a court-ordered substitute decision-maker.

The process requires:

• COP1 application form plus supporting information forms (COP1A for financial, COP1B for welfare)
• COP3 capacity assessment completed by a registered medical practitioner (costs £100–£300 privately)
• £432 court filing fee (from 13 July 2026), with fee remission available via form COP44A
• Notification to at least three interested parties (COP15PADep notice) 14 days before submitting the application
• 4–6 months minimum processing time

Once appointed, the deputy pays an annual OPG supervision fee of £320 and maintains a security bond. A financial deputy must submit annual reports to the OPG and operates under the court order and OPG supervision, with less flexibility than an LPA attorney.

The Window That Already Closed

The hardest part for most families is accepting that by the time they are dealing with these consequences, the option they wish they had taken — creating an LPA while their parent or spouse still had capacity — is no longer available.

An LPA takes a few hours to draft, a few weeks to collect signatures, and 8–16 weeks to register with the OPG. Total cost: £92 per document. A deputyship takes months of court proceedings and costs thousands.

If someone you care about still has capacity and does not have a registered LPA, the Wales Capacity Protection Toolkit walks through the entire process from first conversation to registered document.

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