How much does a lasting power of attorney cost in 2026?

Registering a lasting power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £92 per LPA in England and Wales. There are two types - property and financial affairs, and health and welfare - so registering both costs £184. A couple who each make both types pay £368 in registration fees between them. That is the entire compulsory cost. If you use a solicitor, expect a professional fee of roughly £300 to £650 per LPA on top of the registration fee, and if you use an online LPA service typically £90 to £200 per LPA on top. The registration fee is payable whichever route you take, because it goes to the Office of the Public Guardian rather than to any adviser.

Do I need a solicitor for a power of attorney?

No. The LPA forms are published on GOV.UK and are deliberately designed to be completed by the donor without legal training, either online through the digital service or on paper. Hundreds of thousands of LPAs are registered each year without a solicitor. That said, paying for advice is genuinely worth it in some situations: where the donor's capacity is already borderline, where the family is blended or there is a realistic chance a relative will object, where the donor owns a business or holds assets in a trust, or where you want tailored restrictions and instructions written into the form. Badly worded instructions are one of the most common reasons the Office of the Public Guardian rejects or severs part of an LPA, and a solicitor earns their fee by getting that wording right first time.

Can I get the LPA fee reduced or waived?

Yes, and many eligible people never claim it. If the donor's gross annual income is under £12,000 a year, they can apply for a 50% remission, which brings the fee down to £46 per LPA. If the donor receives certain means-tested benefits, they can apply for a full exemption and pay nothing. Qualifying benefits include Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, and Working Tax Credit combined with Child Tax Credit or a disability element. You apply using form LPA120, sent to the Office of the Public Guardian at the same time as the LPA itself, with evidence attached.

How do I apply for an LPA fee exemption or remission?

Download form LPA120 from GOV.UK, complete it, and post it to the Office of the Public Guardian with your evidence at the same time as you send the LPA for registration. Evidence has to show the donor's title, full name, address and postcode, and must cover the correct financial year - which runs from 1 April to 31 March. For an exemption you need a full breakdown or entitlement letter from the benefit provider. For a remission you need proof of income: three consecutive wage slips, a P60 or pension provider letter, a recent tax return, or statements for savings and rental income. Bank statements alone are not accepted. If your application is refused and you think that is wrong, you have 28 days from the decision letter to request a written review.

What happens if I do not have an LPA and lose capacity?

Your family cannot simply step in. They have to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy, which is slower, more intrusive and considerably more expensive. The application fee is £432, there is a £100 assessment fee for new deputies, and £266 more if the court decides a hearing is needed. On top of that a property and financial affairs deputy pays an annual supervision fee - £320 a year for general supervision, or £35 a year for minimal supervision where the estate is under £21,000 - plus a security bond premium that varies with the value of the estate they control. Deputies also file an annual report with the Office of the Public Guardian for as long as the deputyship lasts. Compared with a one-off £92, the arithmetic is not close.

Is £92 the fee per LPA or for both types?

Per LPA. Property and financial affairs and health and welfare are two separate legal documents, each registered separately and each attracting its own £92 fee, which is why registering both costs £184. It is a common and expensive misunderstanding: people pay £92, register only the property and financial affairs LPA, and then discover years later that nobody has authority to make decisions about care or medical treatment. If you can only afford one, most people should start with property and financial affairs, because that is the one that unlocks day-to-day banking, bills and property. But the health and welfare LPA is the one families most often wish they had.

What does the £92 registration fee actually cover?

It covers the Office of the Public Guardian checking the form for errors, notifying anyone you named as a person to be told, applying the statutory four-week objection window, entering the LPA on the public register and returning the stamped, registered document to you. It does not cover legal advice, it does not cover anyone checking whether your choice of attorney is sensible, and it does not cover any review of whether your instructions will work in practice. The OPG checks the form is validly made, not that it is well made. That distinction is exactly where a solicitor adds value when the situation is complicated.

How long does it take to register an LPA, and can I pay to speed it up?

Registration usually takes around 8 to 10 weeks if the application is error-free, and can stretch to 16 weeks or longer where there are mistakes or an objection. There is no fast-track and no fee you can pay to jump the queue, because a statutory four-week notification period is built into the process by law. The practical implication is that an LPA is useless in an emergency - it cannot be used at all until it comes back registered. Anyone waiting for a diagnosis or a hospital discharge decision should get the application in now rather than when it is needed.

Do the same LPA fees apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?

No. This page covers England and Wales, where LPAs are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Scotland has its own system of continuing and welfare powers of attorney registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), with a separate fee scale and its own exemption rules. Northern Ireland still uses enduring powers of attorney, registered with the Office of Care and Protection, again with different fees. If the donor lives in Scotland or Northern Ireland, none of the figures on this page apply and you should check the relevant national guidance.

Can I pay the LPA fee now and claim a refund later?

Yes. If you want the registration to start straight away but do not yet have the paperwork to prove low income, you can pay the full fee and then apply for a refund using LPA120 within three months. It is worth knowing about, because the alternative - waiting to gather evidence before submitting anything - can add weeks to a process that already takes a couple of months. There is also a hardship route: if the donor does not strictly qualify for exemption or remission but paying would cause genuine financial hardship, you can send a written request alongside the LPA120 and the Office of the Public Guardian will ask for the information it needs.

Lasting power of attorney cost 2026: £92, or free if you qualify

What a lasting power of attorney actually costs, by route

The confusion around LPA pricing comes from one thing: people conflate the registration fee, which is a government charge, with the professional fee, which is optional. The registration fee is £92 per LPA and you pay it whichever route you choose, because it goes to the Office of the Public Guardian rather than to any adviser. What varies is who fills the form in and how much they charge you for it.

The table below shows all-in totals - registration fee plus typical professional fee - for the three situations people actually find themselves in: one LPA, both types for one person, and a couple who each want both types. The last column is the one that catches people out, because it is four separate documents and four separate registration fees.

Route	One LPA	Both types (one person)	Couple, both types each
Do it yourself You complete the GOV.UK forms and pay the registration fee only.	£92	£184	£368
DIY with remission (income under £12,000) Half the registration fee, evidence of income sent with the application.	£46	£92	Assessed per donor
DIY with exemption (qualifying benefits) No registration fee at all if the donor gets a qualifying means-tested benefit.	£0	£0	Assessed per donor
Online LPA service A guided form-filling service, usually without individual legal advice.	£182-£292	£364-£584	£728-£1,168
Solicitor Advice on capacity, attorney choice, restrictions and instructions, plus drafting.	£392-£742	£784-£1,484	£1,568-£2,968

Registration fees verified at gov.uk/power-of-attorney/register on 23 July 2026. Professional fees are observed market ranges for England and Wales in July 2026, not quotations - always ask for a written, all-inclusive figure before instructing anyone. Remission and exemption are assessed on the donor's circumstances, so in a couple one partner may qualify and the other may not.

Compare on the all-in figure, not the headline

Many firms quote a package price for a couple's four LPAs - two each - and the headline number can look large or small depending on whether the £368 of registration fees is inside or outside it. Ask one question in writing: "what is the total I will pay, including all four registration fees?" That single figure makes every quote comparable.

Also ask whether the price includes acting as your certificate provider, the independent person who confirms you understand what you are signing. Some firms charge separately for it; a friend or neighbour who has known you for at least two years can do it for free.

Paying half, or nothing at all - the route most people miss

This is the single most under-claimed concession in the whole power of attorney process. The Office of the Public Guardian will reduce or waive the registration fee entirely, based on the donor's circumstances - the person making the LPA, not the attorney and not whoever is paying. There are two levels.

Remission - half the fee

£46

per LPA, if the donor's gross annual income is £12,000 or less. That is income before tax from all sources - employment, self-employment, pensions including drawdown, non-means-tested benefits such as Attendance Allowance, savings interest, dividends and rent.

A repeat application within three months drops from £46 to £23 with remission.

Exemption - no fee at all

£0

if the donor receives a qualifying means-tested benefit and has not been awarded personal injury damages of more than £16,000 that were disregarded in their benefit assessment.

A donor on Pension Credit Guarantee Credit can register both LPAs for nothing - a saving of £184 on a household budget that can least afford it.

Which benefits qualify for full exemption

The list is specific and it matters, because the near-misses are common. Qualifying means-tested benefits are:

Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit
Income-related Employment and Support Allowance
Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
Income Support
Housing Benefit
Council Tax Benefit (not the 25% single person discount)
Local Housing Allowance
Working Tax Credit combined with Child Tax Credit, the disability element or the severe disability element

The benefits that do not qualify - and catch people out

Benefits paid because of your National Insurance contributions are not means-tested and do not qualify for exemption. Neither does the State Pension itself, however low your income is. So a pensioner receiving only the new State Pension of £12,547.60 a year gets no exemption - and, because that figure is above £12,000, no remission either. They pay the full £92.

Contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance and contributory Employment and Support Allowance are in the same position. Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment are not means-tested either, so they do not earn an exemption - but they do count as income when the Office of the Public Guardian works out whether the donor is under the £12,000 remission threshold, which can push someone over it.

Universal Credit is handled differently again: a donor on Universal Credit is assessed for remission rather than exemption, and needs twelve months of DWP statements as evidence.

A worked example

Worked example

Two donors, identical LPAs, very different bills

Donor A - State Pension of £12,548

£184

Income is £548 over the threshold and the State Pension is not means-tested. Full fee on both LPAs.

Donor B - small pension of £9,800, no benefits

£92

Under £12,000 gross, so 50% remission on each LPA. Evidence: a P60 or pension provider letter.

Donor C - Pension Credit Guarantee Credit

£0

Qualifying means-tested benefit, so full exemption on both. Evidence: a full breakdown specifying the guaranteed element.

Donor A is the frustrating case and a very common one. Being £548 a year over the threshold costs £184. If Donor A is also entitled to Pension Credit but has never claimed it - and hundreds of thousands of pensioners are in exactly that position - claiming it would both raise their income and make the LPA free. Check entitlement before you pay.

How to apply, using form LPA120

Download form LPA120 from GOV.UK, complete it, and post it to the Office of the Public Guardian at the same time as you send the LPA for registration. The timing is not optional - evidence sent later will not be matched to your application. A few practical points from the current form:

Evidence must show the donor's title, full name, address and postcode, and must cover the correct financial year, which runs from 1 April to 31 March.
Bank statements alone are not accepted as proof of income. You need supporting documentation from the benefit or payment provider - wage slips, a P60, a pension provider letter, an HMRC tax calculation or a self-assessment return.
If the donor has no income at all, a signed statement explaining how they support themselves is accepted.
If the donor does not qualify but paying would cause genuine financial hardship, there is a separate hardship route - send a written request alongside the LPA120.
If your application is refused, you have 28 days from the decision letter to request a written review. You get one review per application.
In a hurry? Pay the full fee to start registration immediately, then claim a refund with LPA120 within three months.

Sort it in 30 minutes

Write your will or set up Power of Attorney

Without an LPA in place, your family cannot legally manage your money if you lose capacity — only the Court of Protection can.

DIY or solicitor? An honest decision tree

There is no universally right answer here, and anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. The forms genuinely are designed for people to complete themselves, and for a straightforward family that is the sensible choice. But an LPA is a document that hands another person control of your money or your medical treatment at the exact moment you can no longer supervise them. In the wrong circumstances, saving £400 is a false economy.

Quick check

Should you pay for professional help with your LPA?

1
Straightforward finances, one obvious attorney, everyone in the family agrees

→ Do it yourself. Use the GOV.UK digital service, which validates as you go and cuts the error rate. Total cost £184 for both types, or less with remission. Have a trusted friend act as certificate provider rather than paying for one.
2
Comfortable with forms, but you want a second pair of eyes before it goes in

→ An online LPA service sits between the two - typically £90-£200 per LPA on top of registration. You get guided drafting and a check for common errors, but usually not individual legal advice on your circumstances. Confirm what "checked" actually means before paying.
3
Blended family, estranged relatives, or you expect someone to object

→ Pay for a solicitor. Objections are the most expensive thing that can go wrong, because a contested LPA can end up before the Court of Protection, where costs run into thousands. A solicitor who documents the donor's reasoning at the time of signing makes a later challenge far harder to sustain.
4
The donor already has a diagnosis, or capacity is borderline

→ Pay for a solicitor, and do it now. Capacity is decision-specific and can fluctuate, so an early-stage diagnosis does not automatically prevent someone making an LPA - but it does mean the assessment needs to be done properly and recorded. Get this wrong and the alternative is a Court of Protection deputyship at many times the cost.
5
You own a business, a partnership share, or assets held in trust

→ Pay for a solicitor. Many people in this position need a separate business LPA naming a different attorney with the right commercial knowledge, and partnership or shareholder agreements often contain their own incapacity provisions that have to be read across.
6
You want specific restrictions or instructions written into the form

→ Pay for a solicitor, or at minimum get the wording checked. Poorly drafted instructions are one of the most common reasons the Office of the Public Guardian severs part of an LPA - leaving you with a registered document that does not do what you intended, and no refund of the fee.

If cost is the barrier, check remission and exemption first - form LPA120. A donor on a qualifying benefit registers both LPAs for nothing.

When paying for advice is genuinely money well spent

It is worth being concrete about this, because "get professional advice" is usually offered as a disclaimer rather than a recommendation. Here is what a solicitor is actually doing for the fee, and when that work has real value.

Capacity that is already borderline

An LPA can only be made while the donor has mental capacity to make it. That is a decision-specific test, so a diagnosis of dementia does not by itself prevent someone from making an LPA - many people with an early-stage diagnosis can and do. But if capacity is in doubt, the assessment needs to be done and recorded by someone whose judgement will stand up later. If it turns out capacity was already lost, the LPA is invalid and the family is left with a Court of Protection application instead.

Blended families and likely challenges

Second marriages, stepchildren, adult children who do not speak to each other, an attorney who is not the obvious choice - these are the situations where somebody objects. A solicitor who takes instructions privately, records why the donor chose who they chose, and confirms there was no pressure creates a contemporaneous record that is very difficult to argue with afterwards. That record is the product you are buying, and it is worth considerably more than the drafting.

Business interests

If you are a sole trader, in a partnership, or a director and shareholder of your own company, a single LPA naming your spouse is often the wrong structure. You may need a separate business LPA with a different attorney, and your partnership or shareholders' agreement may already say what happens on incapacity. This is not something to work out from a GOV.UK guidance note.

Unusual restrictions and instructions

The forms distinguish between preferences, which your attorney should consider, and instructions, which they must follow. Instructions are where DIY applications most often come unstuck: an instruction that is unworkable, unlawful or inconsistent with the rest of the LPA gets severed by the Office of the Public Guardian, and you find out months later. If you want your attorneys to act jointly for some decisions and severally for others, or you want to control investment decisions, or you want life-sustaining treatment provisions that interact with an existing advance decision, pay someone to draft it.

Free and low-cost help before you pay a solicitor

Some charities, local Age UK branches and law centres run free or subsidised LPA clinics, and some employers include legal advice cover in an employee assistance programme. Solicitor firms occasionally run free LPA weeks. None of these waive the £92 registration fee, which is a government charge, but they can remove the professional fee entirely.

If you are helping an older relative through this, our guide to helping elderly parents with their finances covers the wider conversation, and the power of attorney guide explains how the two types differ and what attorneys can and cannot do.

The cost of not having one - deputyship compared

This is the real financial argument for an LPA, and it is rarely made with numbers attached. If you lose capacity without a registered LPA in place, your family cannot step in. They must apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy. It is slower, far more intrusive, and it never stops costing money.

Cost element	LPA (arranged in advance)	Deputyship (capacity already lost)
Application / registration fee	£92 per document	£432 (paid twice if you apply for both types)
One-off assessment fee	None	£100 for new deputies
Hearing fee	None	£266 if the court directs a hearing
Annual supervision fee	None	£320/yr general, £35/yr minimal (estates under £21,000)
Security bond	None	Annual premium set by the value of the estate the deputy controls
Ongoing obligations	None beyond acting properly	Annual report to the Office of the Public Guardian, every year
Who chooses the decision-maker	You do, while you can	The court does, on the evidence in front of it
Rough first-year court cost	£184 once	£852+, then £320 every year after

Deputyship fees verified at gov.uk/become-deputy/fees on 23 July 2026. The security bond premium is not a fixed figure - it depends on the value of the estate and how much of it the deputy controls, so we have described it rather than guessed at it. Most deputyship applications also involve solicitor fees, which are not in this table. Deputies on low incomes or means-tested benefits can apply for a fee exemption or remission too.

Put the comparison over a realistic timeframe and it becomes stark. Ten years of general supervision, plus the application and assessment fees, is roughly £3,732 of court charges alone, before a penny of legal costs or bond premiums - against £184, paid once, for both LPAs. Even a solicitor-drafted pair of LPAs at the top of the market range comes in below the first-year cost of deputyship, and then stops.

The non-financial cost is larger still. A deputyship application takes months, during which nobody can access the money to pay care fees, a mortgage or a household bill. And the court - not you - decides who is appointed. If your family disagrees about who that should be, you will not be there to settle it.

What the £92 fee does and does not cover

Worth being clear about, because people assume the fee buys a quality check on their document. It does not.

The fee covers

Checking the form is validly made and correctly signed and witnessed
Notifying anyone you named as a "person to be told"
The statutory four-week window for objections
Entering the LPA on the register held by the Office of the Public Guardian
Returning the stamped, registered document so it can be used

The fee does not cover

Any legal advice on your circumstances
Any view on whether your chosen attorney is a sensible choice
Any check that your instructions will work in practice
Any assessment of whether you had capacity when you signed
Storage - you keep the original, and losing it is a genuine problem

The Office of the Public Guardian checks that the LPA is validly made, not that it is well made. That is precisely the gap a solicitor fills when the situation warrants it.

Common cost mistakes

Paying twice because the application was rejected

The most expensive DIY mistake is a form that comes back. Missing signatures, dates signed in the wrong order, a certificate provider who is not eligible, or an unworkable instruction can all get an application refused or partly severed. If you have to reapply, a repeat application made within three months costs £46 rather than the full £92 - useful, but you also lose the two to four months already spent waiting.

The signing order is the classic trap: the donor signs first, then the certificate provider, then the attorneys - each after the person before them, with dates that show it. Getting that sequence wrong invalidates the document. Using the GOV.UK digital service materially reduces the error rate because it validates as you go.

Not claiming remission or exemption

Covered in full above, but it belongs on any list of cost mistakes. People on Pension Credit Guarantee Credit routinely pay £184 they never had to pay, usually because nobody mentioned form LPA120. If you are helping a relative with their LPA, ask what benefits they receive before you reach for a card.

Registering only one type

Paying £92 and registering only the property and financial affairs LPA is a false economy that surfaces years later, when a hospital or care home needs a decision about treatment or residence and nobody has authority to make it. Getting a health and welfare LPA made at that point is usually impossible, because capacity has gone. If budget forces a choice, start with property and financial affairs - but treat the second one as deferred, not cancelled.

Buying packages that bundle extras you do not need

Fixed-price "estate planning packages" that wrap LPAs together with a will, a trust and a document storage subscription can be good value or poor value, and the only way to tell is to price each element separately. Two things to look at hard: ongoing annual storage or registration fees, which can quietly outlast the benefit, and asset protection trusts sold alongside LPAs on the promise of avoiding care fees. The latter is heavily marketed, frequently ineffective against a local authority deliberate deprivation of assets assessment, and expensive. Our guide to giving your house to your children explains why.

Assuming a will covers it

A will and an LPA do opposite jobs. A will takes effect only after you die and has no force while you are alive; an LPA operates only while you are alive and dies with you. Having one does nothing for the other, and paying a solicitor for a will does not mean an LPA is included - check the engagement letter.

Three scenarios - what people actually pay

Scenario

Doreen, 79

Widow, on Pension Credit Guarantee Credit, lives in a housing association flat

Situation: Doreen's daughter Kelly wants both LPAs in place after Doreen had a fall. Kelly assumed the cost was £184 and had been putting it off.

Doreen receives the Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, which is a qualifying means-tested benefit, and has no personal injury damages award. She therefore qualifies for a full exemption from the registration fee on both LPAs.

Kelly requests a full breakdown of the Pension Credit award from the DWP, specifying the guaranteed element and showing amounts and dates. She completes both LPAs on the GOV.UK digital service, completes form LPA120, and posts the LPA120 and the evidence to the Office of the Public Guardian at the same time as the LPAs go in. A neighbour who has known Doreen for eleven years acts as certificate provider at no cost.

Total paid: £0. Against £184 if they had simply paid, or roughly £784 to £1,484 through a high-street solicitor. Doreen's affairs are simple, her family agrees, and there was nothing a solicitor would have added.

The detail that mattered: the evidence had to go in with the application, and bank statements alone would have been refused. Kelly asked the DWP for the breakdown two weeks before submitting anything.

Scenario

Raj & Helena

Both 63, second marriage, four adult children between them, Raj runs a limited company

Situation: Raj has two children from his first marriage and a 40% shareholding in an engineering firm. Helena has two children of her own. They want both LPAs each.

This is a case where paying for advice is clearly the right call, and it is worth being specific about why. Three factors stack up:

A blended family. Raj's elder son does not get on with Helena. If Helena is sole attorney and Raj later loses capacity, an objection or a Court of Protection application is a realistic prospect - and that costs multiples of any solicitor's fee.
A business interest. Helena has no engineering background and no wish to make decisions about a 40% shareholding. Raj needs a separate business LPA naming his fellow director, and the shareholders' agreement has to be read across for its own incapacity provisions.
Instructions rather than preferences. Raj wants his attorneys to act jointly on any decision over £25,000 and severally below it. That is exactly the kind of wording the Office of the Public Guardian severs when it is drafted loosely.

They instruct a solicitor for five LPAs in total - Raj's two personal plus a business LPA, and Helena's two. The professional fee lands within the usual £300-£650 per LPA range, and the registration fees are £460 on top. Neither qualifies for remission.

The value they actually bought is not the drafting. It is a contemporaneous, professionally recorded account of why Raj chose the attorneys he chose, taken with Helena out of the room. If Raj's son challenges the arrangement in ten years' time, that file note is what defeats the challenge.

Scenario

Michael, 71

Retired teacher, £14,200 a year from a small teacher's pension and the State Pension

Situation: Michael is organised, healthy, has one daughter he trusts completely and a straightforward set of finances. He was quoted a four-figure package for wills and LPAs for himself and his sister.

Michael's gross income is above the £12,000 threshold, so no remission, and his pensions are not means-tested benefits, so no exemption. He pays the full £184 for both types.

He looks hard at the package he was quoted and prices the elements separately. The will is worth paying for. The LPAs, given a single obvious attorney and no restrictions he wants beyond the standard form, he completes himself on the GOV.UK digital service in an evening. The document storage subscription, billed annually and indefinitely, he declines - he keeps the originals in a fireproof box and tells his daughter where it is.

Total for both LPAs: £184. He asks a former colleague of fifteen years to be certificate provider. Registration takes about ten weeks and the documents come back stamped.

Where he was right to be cautious: he checked before starting that his daughter was willing to act, that she understood attorneys must act in his best interests rather than their own, and that a replacement attorney was named in case she could not act. Those three checks cost nothing and prevent most of the problems that DIY LPAs run into.

What to do next

If you have decided an LPA is worth having - and for almost everyone over 60 it is - the sequence that saves the most money is:

Check remission and exemption first. Find out what benefits the donor receives and what their gross annual income is, before anyone pays anything. If Pension Credit has never been claimed, check entitlement now.
Decide honestly whether your situation is simple. Use the decision tree above. If any branch pointed you towards a solicitor, the fee is worth it.
If DIY, use the GOV.UK digital service rather than paper. It validates as you go and cuts the rejection rate that costs people months.
Do both types. £184 now beats a health and welfare gap you cannot fill later.
Apply well before you need it. Registration takes roughly 8 to 10 weeks when everything is right, longer when it is not, and the LPA cannot be used at all until it comes back registered.

Related reading in this pillar: probate, wills and power of attorney is the hub, and probate costs covers what happens to the estate after death - a separate process with a separate, much larger fee.

Frequently asked questions

How much does a lasting power of attorney cost in 2026?: Registering a lasting power of attorney with the Office of the Public Guardian costs £92 per LPA in England and Wales. There are two types - property and financial affairs, and health and welfare - so registering both costs £184. A couple who each make both types pay £368 in registration fees between them. That is the entire compulsory cost. If you use a solicitor, expect a professional fee of roughly £300 to £650 per LPA on top of the registration fee, and if you use an online LPA service typically £90 to £200 per LPA on top. The registration fee is payable whichever route you take, because it goes to the Office of the Public Guardian rather than to any adviser.
Do I need a solicitor for a power of attorney?: No. The LPA forms are published on GOV.UK and are deliberately designed to be completed by the donor without legal training, either online through the digital service or on paper. Hundreds of thousands of LPAs are registered each year without a solicitor. That said, paying for advice is genuinely worth it in some situations: where the donor's capacity is already borderline, where the family is blended or there is a realistic chance a relative will object, where the donor owns a business or holds assets in a trust, or where you want tailored restrictions and instructions written into the form. Badly worded instructions are one of the most common reasons the Office of the Public Guardian rejects or severs part of an LPA, and a solicitor earns their fee by getting that wording right first time.
Can I get the LPA fee reduced or waived?: Yes, and many eligible people never claim it. If the donor's gross annual income is under £12,000 a year, they can apply for a 50% remission, which brings the fee down to £46 per LPA. If the donor receives certain means-tested benefits, they can apply for a full exemption and pay nothing. Qualifying benefits include Guarantee Credit element of Pension Credit, income-related Employment and Support Allowance, income-based Jobseeker's Allowance, Income Support, Housing Benefit, Council Tax Benefit, Local Housing Allowance, and Working Tax Credit combined with Child Tax Credit or a disability element. You apply using form LPA120, sent to the Office of the Public Guardian at the same time as the LPA itself, with evidence attached.
Which benefits do not qualify for an LPA fee exemption?: Benefits based on your National Insurance contributions rather than a means test do not qualify, and neither does the State Pension itself. So contribution-based Jobseeker's Allowance, contributory Employment and Support Allowance and the basic or new State Pension will not on their own get you an exemption. Attendance Allowance, Disability Living Allowance and Personal Independence Payment are not means-tested either, so they do not qualify for exemption - though they do count as income when the Office of the Public Guardian assesses whether you are under the £12,000 threshold for a 50% remission. Universal Credit is treated differently again: a donor receiving Universal Credit is assessed for remission rather than exemption, and needs twelve months of statements as evidence.
How do I apply for an LPA fee exemption or remission?: Download form LPA120 from GOV.UK, complete it, and post it to the Office of the Public Guardian with your evidence at the same time as you send the LPA for registration. Evidence has to show the donor's title, full name, address and postcode, and must cover the correct financial year - which runs from 1 April to 31 March. For an exemption you need a full breakdown or entitlement letter from the benefit provider. For a remission you need proof of income: three consecutive wage slips, a P60 or pension provider letter, a recent tax return, or statements for savings and rental income. Bank statements alone are not accepted. If your application is refused and you think that is wrong, you have 28 days from the decision letter to request a written review.
What happens if I do not have an LPA and lose capacity?: Your family cannot simply step in. They have to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as your deputy, which is slower, more intrusive and considerably more expensive. The application fee is £432, there is a £100 assessment fee for new deputies, and £266 more if the court decides a hearing is needed. On top of that a property and financial affairs deputy pays an annual supervision fee - £320 a year for general supervision, or £35 a year for minimal supervision where the estate is under £21,000 - plus a security bond premium that varies with the value of the estate they control. Deputies also file an annual report with the Office of the Public Guardian for as long as the deputyship lasts. Compared with a one-off £92, the arithmetic is not close.
Is £92 the fee per LPA or for both types?: Per LPA. Property and financial affairs and health and welfare are two separate legal documents, each registered separately and each attracting its own £92 fee, which is why registering both costs £184. It is a common and expensive misunderstanding: people pay £92, register only the property and financial affairs LPA, and then discover years later that nobody has authority to make decisions about care or medical treatment. If you can only afford one, most people should start with property and financial affairs, because that is the one that unlocks day-to-day banking, bills and property. But the health and welfare LPA is the one families most often wish they had.
What does the £92 registration fee actually cover?: It covers the Office of the Public Guardian checking the form for errors, notifying anyone you named as a person to be told, applying the statutory four-week objection window, entering the LPA on the public register and returning the stamped, registered document to you. It does not cover legal advice, it does not cover anyone checking whether your choice of attorney is sensible, and it does not cover any review of whether your instructions will work in practice. The OPG checks the form is validly made, not that it is well made. That distinction is exactly where a solicitor adds value when the situation is complicated.
How long does it take to register an LPA, and can I pay to speed it up?: Registration usually takes around 8 to 10 weeks if the application is error-free, and can stretch to 16 weeks or longer where there are mistakes or an objection. There is no fast-track and no fee you can pay to jump the queue, because a statutory four-week notification period is built into the process by law. The practical implication is that an LPA is useless in an emergency - it cannot be used at all until it comes back registered. Anyone waiting for a diagnosis or a hospital discharge decision should get the application in now rather than when it is needed.
Do the same LPA fees apply in Scotland and Northern Ireland?: No. This page covers England and Wales, where LPAs are registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. Scotland has its own system of continuing and welfare powers of attorney registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (Scotland), with a separate fee scale and its own exemption rules. Northern Ireland still uses enduring powers of attorney, registered with the Office of Care and Protection, again with different fees. If the donor lives in Scotland or Northern Ireland, none of the figures on this page apply and you should check the relevant national guidance.
Can I pay the LPA fee now and claim a refund later?: Yes. If you want the registration to start straight away but do not yet have the paperwork to prove low income, you can pay the full fee and then apply for a refund using LPA120 within three months. It is worth knowing about, because the alternative - waiting to gather evidence before submitting anything - can add weeks to a process that already takes a couple of months. There is also a hardship route: if the donor does not strictly qualify for exemption or remission but paying would cause genuine financial hardship, you can send a written request alongside the LPA120 and the Office of the Public Guardian will ask for the information it needs.

This is general information, not legal advice

Every figure on this page was verified against GOV.UK on 23 July 2026 and applies to England and Wales only. Scotland and Northern Ireland operate separate systems with their own fee scales. Registration fees are set by the Ministry of Justice and change from time to time - check gov.uk/power-of-attorney/register before you pay.

Solicitor and online-service fees are observed market ranges, not quotations, and individual firms vary widely - always obtain a written, all-inclusive figure. Whether an LPA is right for you, who you should appoint and what restrictions you should include are legal questions that depend on your circumstances, and nothing here is a substitute for advice from a qualified solicitor. Retirement Expert is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. See our disclaimer for more.

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