Property and Financial Affairs LPA vs Health and Welfare LPA

Two Separate Legal Documents, Not One

England splits Lasting Power of Attorney into two entirely distinct instruments. A Property and Financial Affairs LPA covers money — bank accounts, pensions, tax returns, property sales, and bill payments. A Health and Welfare LPA covers care — medical treatment decisions, where someone lives, daily routines, and, if specified, life-sustaining treatment choices.

They are filed as separate applications with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), each costs £92 to register, and each has its own signing and witnessing sequence. You can create one without the other, though most families register both for comprehensive protection.

Property and Financial Affairs LPA

This is the instrument that gives your chosen attorney authority to manage your financial life. Once registered, you choose when it activates — the donor can opt for immediate use (even while they still have capacity, with the attorney acting alongside them) or restrict it to only take effect after they lose mental capacity.

Immediate activation is more common than people expect. It is useful when the donor is physically frail but mentally sharp — they might need an attorney to visit the bank on their behalf, manage online payments, or handle property maintenance while they are housebound.

The attorney's powers are broad but not unlimited. They can pay bills from the donor's accounts, manage investments, sell or let property, and deal with tax authorities. They can make only customary gifts of reasonable value, they cannot mix the donor's funds with their own, and they cannot benefit themselves financially unless the LPA specifically allows it.

Health and Welfare LPA

The key difference with this instrument is the trigger: a Health and Welfare LPA can only be used after the donor has lost mental capacity. Unlike the financial LPA, there is no option for immediate use. An attorney under a Health and Welfare LPA has no authority while the donor can still make their own decisions.

Once it activates, the attorney can make decisions about medical treatment, choice of care home, daily routine, diet, and social contact. If the donor has ticked the relevant box in Section 5, the attorney also gains authority over life-sustaining treatment decisions — a power that many families do not realise needs to be explicitly granted.

The Health and Welfare LPA interacts with another planning document: the Advance Decision to Refuse Treatment (ADRT). If the donor signed an ADRT before creating the LPA, and the LPA grants the attorney power over life-sustaining treatment, the LPA overrides the ADRT. The sequence of creation matters, and families should ensure both documents work together rather than contradict each other.

Do You Need Both?

In most cases, yes. The two instruments protect against different risks:

Without a financial LPA or valid EPA, no one can access the donor's bank accounts, pay their mortgage, or manage their pension if they lose capacity. The alternative — a Court of Protection deputyship — costs £432 to apply for, takes 6 to 9 months to process, and imposes annual supervision fees of £320.

Without a health LPA, medical decisions fall to the clinical team under the Mental Capacity Act's "best interests" framework. Doctors will consult family members, but the family has no legal authority to direct treatment choices. For decisions about care-home placement, ongoing treatment plans, or end-of-life care, that lack of formal authority can create conflict and delay.

Registering both costs £184 total (£92 each). If the donor qualifies for fee remission through Form LPA120 — gross annual income under £12,000 — each fee drops to £46, bringing the total to £92. If they receive qualifying means-tested benefits such as Income Support or Pension Credit, registration is free.

The Practical Steps

Creating either type of LPA follows the same process: draft the document through the OPG's online portal or on paper using forms LP1F (financial) or LP1H (health), follow the strict chronological signing sequence (donor first, then certificate provider, then attorneys), and submit it to the OPG with the registration fee.

Processing currently takes 8 to 10 weeks for error-free applications, though delays of 14 to 20 weeks occur during peak volumes or if the OPG spots a procedural error. The document is not legally valid until it has been registered and stamped — unlike some international jurisdictions, an unregistered LPA in England has no legal effect whatsoever.

Our complete LPA guide covers the signing sequence, fee remission process, and bank registration steps for both types, along with printable worksheets to keep the process on track.

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