Frequently Asked Questions

Yes, as long as you still have mental capacity. That is the deal with an LPA: you stay in control while you are able, and the document only matters when you are not.

There is no form for editing a registered LPA. To change attorneys or how they act, you make a new LPA and register it, paying the fee again, and usually revoke the old one. To cancel outright, you send the OPG a signed deed of revocation together with the original LPA. If you simply want to remove one attorney of several, you can send a partial deed of revocation, but check the remaining appointment still works, especially if your attorneys were appointed jointly.

Yes. You can prepare the forms online, either through the government's own tool on GOV.UK (free) or through a service like PureWill (£79 for one LPA, £129 for both types), which prepares both forms from one set of questions and adds a personalised signing walkthrough.

What no one can do fully online yet is the signing and registration. The forms must be printed and signed on paper by you, your certificate provider, your attorneys and witnesses, in a strict legal order, then posted to the Office of the Public Guardian with the £92 registration fee per LPA. The signing stage is where most applications go wrong, so whichever route you choose, follow the order carefully.

Yes. You can make a formal amendment (called a codicil) or simply write a new will that revokes the old one. PureWill wills include a revocation clause that automatically revokes any previous wills when you sign. You should review your will after any major life event: marriage, divorce, having children, or a significant change in your assets. Note: marriage automatically revokes a will under English law.

Yes, and most people do exactly that. Spouses, adult children and siblings are the most common choices. An attorney must be 18 or over and have mental capacity themselves. For a property and financial affairs LPA they must not be bankrupt or subject to a debt relief order.

Choose people you trust completely and who are likely to be around for the long term. If you appoint more than one, you will also choose whether they must agree everything unanimously or can each act alone; acting jointly and severally is the practical choice for most families. One rule to keep in mind: family members cannot be your certificate provider, the independent person who confirms you understand the LPA.

No. The forms are designed to be completed without legal help, and most LPAs are made without a solicitor. You can use the free GOV.UK tool, or an online service that prepares the forms and guides the signing.

A solicitor earns their fee (typically £400 or more per LPA) when something is genuinely complicated: family conflict over who should be attorney, any doubt about the donor's mental capacity, business interests, or instructions that need careful drafting. If a dispute later ends up in front of the OPG or a court, professionally drafted documents and a solicitor's file notes are worth every penny. For a straightforward family arrangement, they are more than the job needs.

No. The two documents cover different territory. An LPA operates only while you are alive and ends automatically at your death. Your will only takes effect at your death. There is no overlap and no conflict.

Your attorneys cannot use an LPA to change your will, and they should not even read it unless a court says otherwise. When you die, their authority stops immediately; they must send the registered LPA and a copy of the death certificate back to the OPG, and your executor takes over under the will. This is why the two are so often made together: an LPA without a will, or a will without an LPA, each leaves half the problem unsolved.

Yes. Getting married in England and Wales automatically revokes any will you made before the marriage, even if that will was written recently.

If you do not make a new will after marrying, your estate will be distributed under the rules of intestacy when you die. That may not reflect your wishes, particularly if you have children from a previous relationship or want to leave specific things to specific people.

The only exception is a will written "in contemplation of marriage" — one that explicitly states it is intended to survive a specific forthcoming marriage. These are unusual and need to be drafted carefully.

If you have recently married, you almost certainly need a new will.

Typically 8 to 10 weeks from the day your signed forms reach the Office of the Public Guardian. That includes a mandatory 4-week waiting period, built in so anyone with concerns has time to object, plus checking and processing time on either side.

Nothing speeds this up, which is the practical argument for making an LPA before you need it. Errors slow it down badly: a rejected application means correcting or re-signing the forms and applying again. Preparing the forms themselves takes minutes online; collecting the signatures usually takes a household a week or so.

Most people finish in 20–30 minutes. The process is broken into clear steps: your personal details, executors, beneficiaries, specific gifts, guardians, and funeral wishes. You can save your progress and come back to it at any time using your email address and date of birth.

The law requires at least one attorney and sets no maximum. The official form has space for four, plus two replacement attorneys as backups, and in practice more than four becomes unworkable: more diaries to coordinate, more chances for disagreement.

Two attorneys with a replacement is the most common arrangement. It gives cover if one attorney can no longer act, without turning every decision into a committee. Replacements matter more than people think, especially if your attorneys are your own generation: an LPA that names a single attorney who later dies or loses capacity themselves stops working entirely.

Yes. A handwritten will is legally valid in England and Wales, provided it is signed by the person making the will in the presence of two independent adult witnesses who also sign in your presence at the same time.

Whether the will is handwritten or typed makes no difference in law. The only thing that matters is that it is in writing (not electronic), correctly signed, and correctly witnessed.

The risk with handwritten wills is ambiguity. Unclear wording, missing clauses (such as a revocation clause or an executor appointment), or errors in the signing process can cause problems for your estate. A structured template includes all the legally required elements in the correct format, which reduces that risk considerably.

Yes, provided it is correctly signed and witnessed. PureWill produces wills that comply with the Wills Act 1837. The key requirement is that you sign the will in the presence of two independent adult witnesses (aged 18+, not beneficiaries) who also sign in your presence at the same time. The document itself can be prepared by any means — online, typed, or handwritten.

If it was correctly signed before 1 October 2007, yes. Enduring powers of attorney made before that date remain legally valid, though no new ones can be created. An EPA works differently from an LPA: it does not need registering until the donor starts to lose capacity, at which point the attorney must register it with the OPG.

The gap to watch is that EPAs only ever covered property and finance. There was no health equivalent, so an EPA gives your attorney no say in care or medical decisions. Many people with an old EPA keep it for finances and make a health and welfare LPA alongside it. If your EPA names attorneys who have since died or lost touch, replacing the whole thing with fresh LPAs is usually cleaner.

If a will is not signed correctly, for example if the witnesses were not present at the same time or were beneficiaries, it is likely to be invalid. An invalid will is treated as if no will exists, meaning your estate passes under the rules of intestacy. This is why PureWill includes detailed signing instructions in every PDF.

A single will covers one person. A mirror will is a pair of two separate wills for couples, where each will leaves everything to the other partner first, then to the same backup beneficiaries (usually children). Mirror wills are two independent documents — either person can change theirs at any time.

Timing and control. An LPA is made in advance, while you have mental capacity, and you choose who acts for you. A deputyship happens after capacity is lost, when it is too late for an LPA: someone applies to the Court of Protection to be appointed your deputy, and the court decides who.

The practical differences are stark. An LPA costs £92 per document to register and takes about two months. A deputyship application costs £432, needs a formal capacity assessment, typically takes four to six months, and then carries annual supervision fees, an insurance bond, and yearly reporting to the court for as long as it lasts. Health and welfare deputyships are granted only rarely, so the medical authority an LPA gives may simply never be available. Every deputyship is the story of an LPA that was not made in time.

No LPA can be used until the Office of the Public Guardian has registered it, which takes 8 to 10 weeks. After that, the two types behave differently.

A property and financial affairs LPA takes effect according to the choice you made on the form: either as soon as it is registered (your attorneys can then help whenever you ask, and only with your consent while you have capacity), or only once you have lost mental capacity. Most people choose the first option because it is more practical.

A health and welfare LPA offers no such choice. It can only ever be used once you cannot make the particular decision yourself.