Your LPA planning checklist

Talk through your choices

You are the donor: the person making the LPA. You must be able to understand and decide to make it. These should be your choices, even if someone helps with the forms.

• I have compared the money/property and health/welfare types.
• I understand when each type can be used.
• I have asked the people I want as attorneys.
• I have considered replacement attorneys.
• I have discussed how several attorneys would make decisions.

Write any private notes on your own paper and keep them safe. Use the two-types guide if you are unsure.

Prepare the people and forms

• I have checked who can be my certificate provider and witnesses.
• I have decided whether to name people to notify at registration.
• I have read any instructions or preferences I want to include.
• I have checked names and details on the final forms.

If a choice is complex, get advice before signing. The certificate provider checks your understanding and freedom from pressure; they are not simply another witness.

Check the decisions you are making

Jointly means the attorneys must decide together. Jointly and severally means they may act together or on their own. You can choose different rules for different decisions, but unclear wording can cause problems.

Check attorney eligibility. Someone who is bankrupt or has a debt relief order cannot act as a financial attorney. Think about how replacements would fit your chosen arrangement.

For the financial LPA, decide when it may be used. For health and welfare, decide whether attorneys may consent to or refuse life-sustaining treatment. This means treatment needed to keep you alive. The two-types guide explains the differences. Get advice about complex binding instructions.

Plan the signing session

1. You sign first. Before section 9, sign any required continuation sheets and, for a health and welfare LPA, section 5. Follow the witness instructions for those signatures. Then sign section 9 in front of your witness.
2. Your witness signs straight after you. They also witness section 5 for a health and welfare LPA.
3. The certificate provider signs section 10. They check that you understand the LPA and are acting freely.
4. All attorneys and replacement attorneys sign section 11. Each signature needs a witness. They sign after the certificate provider.
5. Before signing section 15, send form LP3 to anyone you named as a person to notify. The person or people applying to register then sign section 15 last. Follow the form’s rules about who must sign.

Read the official LP12 guide alongside your forms. It covers witness eligibility and special signing cases. Never backdate a section or guess how to correct a mistake.

Check the registration pack

• Every required signature, witness detail and date is complete.
• I have followed the steps for any people to notify.
• I have checked the fee and any fee-help evidence.
• I have checked the documents and address required by the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG).

An LPA must be registered before use. Afterwards, keep it safe and tell your attorneys how to find it.

Keep a private copy

Use the “Print this checklist” button, or your browser’s print option, to keep a paper copy. Write private notes on your own paper and keep them safe. This checklist is not an official LPA form.

For Scotland or Northern Ireland, use our national guidance instead of this LPA sequence.