Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) Cost Calculator

How Much Does a Lasting Power of Attorney Cost?

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is one of the most important legal documents you can put in place. It lets you appoint someone you trust — an attorney — to make decisions on your behalf if you ever lose the mental capacity to make them yourself, whether through illness, an accident or a condition such as dementia. For most families the first practical question is simple: how much does it actually cost?

The headline figure is the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) registration fee of £92 per LPA in England and Wales. This applies to applications received by the OPG from 17 November 2025, having risen from the previous £82 fee. There is no charge to create the LPA itself if you complete the forms on your own, so for a do-it-yourself applicant the cost is purely the registration fee. The complication — and the reason a calculator helps — is that most people register more than one document, may qualify for a reduced fee or an exemption, and sometimes pay a solicitor to draft the forms.

This calculator brings all of those moving parts together so you can see your true out-of-pocket cost in seconds, using the official 2025/26 figures from GOV.UK.

The Two Types of LPA — and Why the Cost Doubles

There are two distinct types of lasting power of attorney in England and Wales, and each is a separate legal document that must be registered separately with its own £92 fee:

• Property & financial affairs LPA — lets your attorney manage money, operate bank accounts, pay bills, deal with pensions and benefits, and buy or sell property. It can be used (with your permission) even while you still have capacity, which is useful if you are abroad or in hospital.
• Health & welfare LPA — lets your attorney make decisions about medical treatment, day-to-day care, moving into a care home and, if you specifically grant it, life-sustaining treatment. This type can only be used once you have lost mental capacity.

Because they cover entirely different areas, the OPG treats them as two applications. Most advisers recommend making both, which is why the typical individual cost is £184 rather than £92. Couples planning together should remember that each partner needs their own set: an LPA made by one person does not cover the other, so a couple wanting full protection registers four documents in total.

How the Calculator Works

The calculator uses the official OPG fee schedule and applies the rules for remission and exemption automatically. The formula is straightforward:

1. Count the documents. It adds your property & financial affairs LPAs to your health & welfare LPAs to get a per-person total.
2. Apply the people multiplier. If you select "Couple", the document count is doubled, because each partner must register their own LPAs.
3. Set the OPG fee per LPA. Full fee = £92. If you select the 50% remission, the per-LPA fee becomes £46. If you select exemption (means-tested benefits), the per-LPA fee is £0.
4. Total the OPG fees. Number of LPAs × per-LPA fee.
5. Add solicitor fees. Your optional per-LPA solicitor or drafting fee is multiplied by the same document count and added on top. Solicitor fees are not affected by OPG remission or exemption.
6. Show the grand total. OPG fees + solicitor fees = the full cost you can expect to pay.

Everything runs instantly in your browser — no data is sent anywhere, and the result updates the moment you press Calculate.

Worked Example

Margaret and David, a married couple in their late sixties, decide to put their affairs in order. They each want both types of LPA — property & financial affairs and health & welfare — so they are registering four documents in total. David's gross income before tax is comfortably above £12,000, so they pay the full fee. They also pay a local solicitor £150 per document to draft and certify the forms.

• Property & financial affairs LPAs: 1 each → 2 documents
• Health & welfare LPAs: 1 each → 2 documents
• Total LPAs: 4
• OPG registration fees: 4 × £92 = £368
• Solicitor fees: 4 × £150 = £600
• Grand total: £968

Had Margaret applied alone and on a low income (under £12,000 a year), her two LPAs would have qualified for the 50% remission: 2 × £46 = £92 in OPG fees. And had she been receiving Income Support, the OPG fee would have been waived entirely — £0 — leaving only any solicitor cost. The example shows how the same family circumstances can produce very different bills depending on income and how the forms are prepared.

Reduced Fees and Exemptions Explained

The OPG operates a remissions and exemptions scheme so that cost is not a barrier to protecting yourself. There are two routes, both based on the donor (the person making the LPA), not the attorney:

50% remission — half fee (£46 per LPA)

If the donor's gross annual income before tax is less than £12,000, the registration fee is halved. This counts income from employment, most pensions, interest and rental income, but not means-tested benefits. At the current full fee of £92, a remission brings each LPA down to £46.

Full exemption — no fee (£0 per LPA)

If the donor receives certain means-tested benefits at the time of applying, the fee is waived completely. Qualifying benefits typically include:

• Income Support
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance (JSA)
• Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
• Guarantee Pension Credit
• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Support / Reduction (in some cases)
• Local Housing Allowance

Note that some benefits — such as disability living allowance, personal independence payment, the basic State Pension or universal credit alone — do not on their own qualify for exemption, so always check the current rules. You claim a remission or exemption using form LPA120, sending evidence (such as a benefit award letter for the correct financial year) at the same time as the LPA. Full criteria are on GOV.UK — Power of Attorney Fees (LPA120).

DIY vs Solicitor — What You Pay

Professional fees vary widely. Solicitors regulated by the SRA must give you clear, transparent pricing — always ask whether quoted prices include VAT and the OPG registration fee. You are never legally required to use a solicitor; the GOV.UK make an LPA service is designed to be completed without one.

What's Included — and What Isn't

To set expectations, here is what the £92 OPG fee does and does not cover:

• Included: the registration of one LPA so it becomes legally usable. Once registered, there is no annual fee and the LPA lasts for your lifetime (until cancelled or you regain capacity to revoke it).
• Not included: drafting help, witnessing, the certificate provider's role (a friend or professional can do this free), or any solicitor advice. These are optional extra costs.
• Not included: the cost of a deputyship application to the Court of Protection, which is a different and far more expensive process that becomes necessary only if someone loses capacity without a registered LPA in place — a strong reason to set up an LPA early.

How to Use This Calculator

Related UK Calculators

Putting an LPA in place often forms part of wider estate planning. These related tools can help you budget for the whole picture:

• Will Writing Cost Calculator — estimate the cost of making a will, often done at the same time as an LPA.
• Probate Fees Calculator — work out the grant of probate fee and solicitor costs after a death.
• All Calculators — browse the full library of free UK financial and legal calculators.

Frequently Asked Questions