Your Complete Guide to Power of Attorney Services

By Matt Cresswell, Founder of Power of Attorney Online and author of
Everything you ever wanted to know about LPAs (but were afraid to ask)

31st October 2025

Updated: Monday 31st August 2026

If you are looking for Your Complete Guide to Power of Attorney Services, you’re probably trying to answer a fairly simple question: do you actually need to pay someone to help you make a Lasting Power of Attorney, and if so, what are you getting for your money? The good news is that there is no single right answer. You can make an LPA yourself using the official GOV.UK service, use a specialist online service for guided support and document checking, or ask a solicitor to handle the process for you. All three routes can ultimately result in the same legally valid LPA registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. The difference is the amount of guidance, checking, personal support and legal advice you receive along the way. For some people, the free government route is exactly right. For others, paying for help is worthwhile because the real risk is not the cost of creating an LPA, but getting something wrong and discovering the problem when it is too late to fix it.

What is a Power of Attorney service?

Before comparing the different options, it helps to understand what you are actually buying.

A Lasting Power of Attorney allows you to appoint people you trust to make decisions on your behalf if you are unable to make them yourself. There are two types: Property and Financial Affairs, and Health and Welfare. A Property and Financial Affairs LPA can generally be used once registered, subject to the donor’s chosen arrangements, while a Health and Welfare LPA can only be used when the donor lacks capacity to make the relevant decision.

The government provides the official service for creating and registering an LPA. A paid service doesn’t replace that legal framework.

Instead, it sits around it.

Think of the GOV.UK route as giving you the official forms and process. A specialist service may guide you through those forms, explain what the questions mean in plain English, flag potential mistakes and check the completed application before it is signed and sent to the OPG.

A solicitor can go further by providing legal advice tailored to your individual circumstances. That difference becomes particularly important when an LPA contains complicated instructions, unusual family arrangements, business interests, overseas assets or questions about capacity.

The free GOV.UK route: what you actually get

There is nothing inherently inferior about making an LPA through GOV.UK.

In fact, for someone who is comfortable working through forms, understands the choices involved and is prepared to check everything carefully, it can be an entirely sensible option. The government’s service is the official route for making and registering an LPA. GOV.UK provides the forms and guidance needed to complete the application.

You are responsible for making sure the information is correct. That includes getting names and dates right, choosing the correct attorneys, deciding how multiple attorneys should act, completing the relevant sections properly and making sure everyone signs in the correct order.

You also need to understand what you are actually authorising. That last point is easy to underestimate. The forms may look manageable when you are sitting at a computer, but some decisions have consequences that are not immediately obvious.

For example, appointing attorneys jointly rather than jointly and severally can affect what happens if one attorney later dies or becomes unable to act. Preferences and instructions can have consequences too. A badly worded instruction can create problems with registration or restrict an attorney in ways you did not intend.

None of this means the GOV.UK route is bad. It means it is a DIY route. If you are confident doing the work yourself, that may be exactly what you want.

What does a paid online Power of Attorney service add?

A specialist online service is designed for people who want more help than GOV.UK provides but do not necessarily need bespoke legal advice from a solicitor.

The process is usually more guided. Instead of being presented with a government form and having to interpret each section yourself, you are taken through the application step by step.

The language can be simplified. Explanations can be provided alongside decisions. Potential mistakes can be highlighted. And, importantly, the completed application can be reviewed before you print, sign and submit it.

At Power of Attorney Online, that expert review is central to what we offer.

Our service guides customers through the LPA application, provides an expert review and includes human support if they are unsure about something. The service is designed to sit between completing the government application entirely yourself and paying for a traditional solicitor-led service.

The distinction is worth making because an online service should not pretend to be something it is not. It doesn’t turn the LPA into a different legal document. It doesn’t remove the OPG registration process. And it does not mean every customer needs legal advice.

What it can do is reduce the amount of uncertainty involved in completing the application.

The proprietary number we think matters

One of the most useful pieces of information we can share from our own experience is this: around 8 in 10 of the LPA drafts our specialists see still contain issues that need attention before submission.

That is our own internal observation from reviewing LPA drafts, rather than an OPG statistic or an independent industry survey. It should therefore be treated as proprietary experience, not as a claim about every LPA application in the UK.

Sometimes it is something relatively straightforward. A name may not match the person’s official documents. A section may have been completed inconsistently. An attorney arrangement may not reflect what the family intended. A signing sequence may need correcting. An instruction may be unnecessarily complicated.

The point is that the forms can be deceptively easy to complete incorrectly. That is where a review can have value.

What happens if an LPA is rejected?

This is where the economics of paying for help become more interesting. The obvious cost of an LPA is the fee you pay to create it. But there is another cost that is harder to put on a price list.

Time. If an application is rejected, you may need to correct the problem and submit it again. The OPG registration process then has to happen again.

Our previous article explains the practical consequence in simple terms: a rejected application can mean another £92 registration fee and another period of waiting, depending on the circumstances. The current OPG fee is £92 per LPA, subject to applicable reductions and exemptions.

For a couple making four LPAs, a mistake repeated across several applications can become expensive. But even more importantly, an LPA is often being made because someone wants protection before something happens.

If a diagnosis has just been received, a parent is beginning to struggle with financial decisions, or a family is trying to prepare for a future health problem, an additional delay can be frustrating at exactly the wrong time.

That is why we often describe the cheapest LPA as the one that doesn’t need doing twice.

Free versus paid: what are you actually comparing?

It is useful to strip away the marketing language and compare the routes directly.

	GOV.UK DIY	Specialist online service	Solicitor
Application	You complete it yourself	Guided online application	Usually prepared with professional assistance
Government registration	Yes	Yes	Yes
OPG registration fee	Payable separately	Payable separately	Payable separately
Step-by-step guidance	Government guidance	Yes	Usually
Document review	Self-check	Specialist review	Solicitor review
Human support	Government channels	Usually available	Yes
Bespoke legal advice	No	Generally not the core service	Yes
Suitable for straightforward cases	Yes	Yes	Yes
Suitable for complex legal circumstances	Potentially, but requires confidence	Depends on the circumstances	Often the better choice
Typical cost	Lowest	Mid-range	Highest

The important thing is that the middle column is not trying to compete with a solicitor on legal advice. It’s solving a different problem.

There are plenty of people who do not need a solicitor but also do not want to complete a legal document entirely alone. That is the gap specialist online services are designed to fill.

When does using GOV.UK make sense?

If your situation is straightforward and you are comfortable reading instructions carefully, the government route can make perfect sense.

You may have a simple family structure. You may know exactly who you want to appoint. You may want one or both types of LPA. You may be comfortable deciding how your attorneys should act. And you may be confident checking the paperwork yourself.

There is no shame in choosing the free route. Indeed, we would rather someone make an LPA themselves through GOV.UK than put the whole thing off because they believe they cannot afford professional help.

The important thing is to understand the responsibility that comes with the DIY approach. You are effectively your own quality control. If something is wrong, you need to spot it. If you do not understand a question, you need to research it. If your family circumstances are unusual, you need to work out whether the standard process actually fits.

For a confident person with a simple situation, that may be entirely reasonable.

When might a paid online service be worth it?

The sweet spot for a specialist online service is often the person who says: “I think I can do this myself, but I really don’t want to get it wrong.”

That is a very different proposition from needing a solicitor. You might understand the broad concept of an LPA but be unsure about the detail. You might be helping an elderly parent who finds the terminology difficult. You might be completing LPAs for yourself and your partner at the same time. You might simply want somebody to check the finished documents before everybody signs them.

In those circumstances, paying for a guided service can provide reassurance without the cost of full legal representation. At Power of Attorney Online, we currently charge £125 for a single LPA or £250 for a pair, with the applicable OPG registration fee payable separately.

Our service includes expert LPA review and human support, and the application can be completed online. The price is therefore not for the legal document itself.

The legal document is ultimately registered with the OPG. The price is for the guidance, review and support around getting it completed correctly.

When should you use a solicitor?

There are situations where a solicitor is the sensible choice. If your circumstances are legally complex, bespoke legal advice can be extremely valuable.

For example, you may have complicated family arrangements, substantial or unusual assets, business interests, international property, questions about gifts, trusts or tax planning, or concerns about potential disputes between family members. A solicitor can advise on the wider legal implications rather than simply helping you complete the LPA.

That distinction matters. A specialist online LPA service shouldn’t try to manufacture complexity simply to justify its fee. Equally, a solicitor is not automatically the right answer for every straightforward LPA.

The question should be: What problem are you actually paying someone to solve?

If you need bespoke legal advice, use a solicitor. If you need help understanding and completing a straightforward LPA, a specialist online service may be enough. If you are confident doing it yourself, GOV.UK is available.

Online does not mean legally different

One question we hear regularly is whether an online LPA is somehow less “official” than one completed through a solicitor.

It isn’t. An LPA created with a specialist online service still has to satisfy the same legal requirements. The document is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. The OPG does not register one class of LPA created by solicitors and another class created online.

The distinction is in how you get to the finished document. That is an important point because “online” can sometimes sound synonymous with “cheap” or “unregulated”.

A responsible online provider should be very clear about what it does and does not offer. At Power of Attorney Online, our service is specifically focused on LPAs rather than presenting itself as a general law firm. Our application is designed around the OPG process, with expert review before documents are printed and signed.

What should you look for in an online Power of Attorney service?

Price is obviously relevant. But it shouldn’t be the only thing you compare. A cheap service that simply puts a prettier interface around the government form may not offer much additional value.

Before choosing a provider, look at what actually happens after you pay. Is there a human available if you get stuck? Is someone checking the completed application? Does the service explain the signing process? Does it help you understand what happens next? Is there support if you spot a mistake? Is the price clear? Does it distinguish between its own service fee and the OPG registration fee?Does it explain when you may actually need a solicitor instead?

Those questions tell you far more than the headline price. At Power of Attorney Online, we include an expert LPA review, human support and a registration guide as part of the service.

What about the signing process?

Completing the online application is only part of the job. Once the LPA has been prepared, it has to be printed and signed in the correct way.

The signing order matters. The donor signs first, followed by the certificate provider and attorneys in the required sequence. The signatures need to be properly witnessed where required.

This is one of those areas where an application can look perfectly correct on screen and still run into trouble during the final stages. That is why a good service should not simply stop at “your form is complete”.

The customer needs to know what happens next. Our customer feedback reflects this. Recent reviews on the site specifically mention the clarity of the application, guidance around signing order and help with corrections.

That practical support is often where people feel the difference between a form-filling service and a genuinely guided service.

What about the Office of the Public Guardian fee?

This is worth explaining because it is an easy area for people to misunderstand.

The service fee and the government registration fee are separate. If you make an LPA yourself through GOV.UK, you do not avoid the OPG registration fee simply because the application service itself is free.

The OPG currently charges £92 for registering each LPA, unless you qualify for a fee exemption or remission. So if one person makes both a Property and Financial Affairs LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA, there are potentially two £92 registration fees.

For a couple making both types, there can be four. That is why it is useful to look at the total cost, rather than assuming “free” means there are no costs at all.

Fee reductions and exemptions

Some people may qualify to pay a reduced OPG fee or nothing at all. Eligibility depends on financial circumstances and the rules in force at the time. The government guidance should always be checked before submitting an application because these arrangements can change.

This is another reason to separate the provider’s price from the government fee. A provider cannot simply decide what the OPG charges. The OPG fee is a government registration cost. The provider’s fee is what you are paying for the service around the application.

What if I only need one LPA?

You don’t have to make both. A Property and Financial Affairs LPA and a Health and Welfare LPA serve different purposes.

Some people decide that one is appropriate for their circumstances. Others choose to make both because they want someone they trust to be able to help with both financial matters and health and welfare decisions if needed.

There is no universal rule that everybody must have two. But if you are making a decision based purely on cost, it is worth thinking about what would happen if the area you have not covered becomes the one where your family needs help.

A Property and Financial Affairs LPA cannot give an attorney authority to make Health and Welfare decisions. Likewise, a Health and Welfare LPA doesn’t give an attorney control over your bank accounts or property.

Can an online service give legal advice?

This is an important distinction. A guided LPA service can explain the process and help you complete the application.

That doesn’t mean it should present itself as a substitute for bespoke legal advice.

If your question is “What does this section of the LPA form mean?”, guided support may be perfectly appropriate.

If your question is “How should I structure my affairs given my complex family, tax and business circumstances?”, you may need a solicitor.

Good providers should be comfortable telling customers when they are outside the scope of the service. That’s a sign of credibility, not weakness.

What does a solicitor typically charge?

Solicitor fees vary considerably depending on the firm, location and complexity of the work. The existing Power of Attorney Online material places typical solicitor costs in the broad region of £1,000+, while more comprehensive or complex work can be higher.

That should not be treated as a fixed market price. Some solicitors offer fixed-fee LPA packages. Others charge hourly rates. Some will prepare one LPA, while others price a pair.

The key comparison is not simply “£125 versus £1,000”. You need to compare what is included.

If you are paying a solicitor for detailed legal advice about a complicated estate, that is a different service from paying an online provider to guide you through a standard LPA application and check the finished document.

The real choice is about risk and reassurance

The most useful way to think about the three routes is perhaps this:

• GOV.UK gives you the tools.
• A specialist online provider gives you the tools plus guidance and checking.
• A solicitor gives you professional legal advice tailored to your circumstances.

None of those choices is inherently better. They simply suit different people. The mistake is choosing based solely on price without considering how confident you are in completing the process correctly.

If you are very comfortable with paperwork, the free route may be perfect. If you want reassurance that someone experienced has checked what you have done, a specialist online service may be the sensible middle ground. If your affairs are complicated or you need advice beyond completing the LPA itself, a solicitor may be worth the additional cost.

The most important thing is actually having an LPA

There is one point on which all three routes agree. An LPA is only useful if you actually make one.

The biggest risk isn’t necessarily paying £125 for help instead of £0. It’s putting the whole thing off.

People often think they will sort out Power of Attorney when they get older, when they retire, after a diagnosis or when something starts to go wrong. Unfortunately, an LPA has to be made while the donor has the necessary mental capacity.

If capacity is lost first, it may no longer be possible to make the LPA and the family may instead have to look at a Court of Protection deputyship application. That is a much more involved route.

So if you are comparing free and paid Power of Attorney services because you are trying to decide whether it is worth doing, the most important decision has already been made.

Do it.

The remaining question is how much help you want along the way.

Our approach at Power of Attorney Online

We built Power of Attorney Online around the gap between the government DIY service and traditional solicitor-led advice.

Our founder, Matt Cresswell, started the business after his father’s diagnosis with dementia and experiencing first-hand how confusing the LPA process can be for families. That experience is one reason the service is focused specifically on making the process understandable rather than surrounding it with unnecessary legal language.

We do not believe everybody needs to pay for help. If GOV.UK is right for you, use it. But if you want someone to guide you through the application and check the finished LPA before it is printed, signed and sent to the OPG, that is the problem we are trying to solve.

Our current price is £125 for one LPA or £250 for a pair, plus the applicable OPG registration fees. The service includes an expert LPA review, Future Planning Review and human support.

We also publish free information because the goal is not to make the process feel mysterious. People should understand what an LPA does, what it costs and what their options are before deciding whether they want help.

Frequently asked questions

Is making a Power of Attorney free?

You can use the GOV.UK service to make an LPA without paying a private provider, but the Office of the Public Guardian registration fee still normally applies. The current fee is £92 per LPA, subject to any applicable exemption or reduction.

Is it worth paying for an online Power of Attorney service?

It depends on how much help you want. If you are confident completing the forms yourself, GOV.UK may be enough. If you want step-by-step guidance and an experienced review before submission, paying for a specialist service can provide additional reassurance.

Is an online LPA legally valid?

Yes, provided the LPA is correctly made and registered in accordance with the legal requirements. An LPA created with an online service is not a different type of legal document from one completed with a solicitor.

Do I need a solicitor to make an LPA?

No. There is no general requirement to use a solicitor. You can make an LPA through GOV.UK or use a specialist online provider. A solicitor may nevertheless be sensible where you need bespoke legal advice or your circumstances are complicated.

What happens if my LPA is rejected?

You may need to correct the problem and submit the application again. This can mean paying another OPG registration fee and waiting for the application to be processed again. The exact consequences depend on why the application was rejected.

Can I make an LPA myself?

Yes. GOV.UK provides the official service for making an LPA yourself. The responsibility for completing the application accurately rests with you.

How much does Power of Attorney Online cost?

Our current price is £125 for a single LPA or £250 for a pair, plus the applicable OPG registration fees. The service includes expert LPA review and human support.

Are online Power of Attorney services regulated like solicitors?

A specialist online LPA provider is not necessarily a law firm and should not imply that it is. What matters is understanding exactly what service is being offered and whether you need legal advice. If you need bespoke legal advice, a solicitor is likely to be the more appropriate route.

Which Power of Attorney service should I choose?

There is no single answer. GOV.UK suits confident DIY applicants. A specialist online service suits people who want guided support and checking without necessarily needing bespoke legal advice. A solicitor is more appropriate where the circumstances require professional legal advice.

The cheapest route is not always the cheapest outcome

There is nothing wrong with free. There is also nothing wrong with paying for help. The important thing is knowing what you are paying for.

If you are confident completing the application yourself, GOV.UK provides the official route and may be all you need. If you want someone to guide you through the process, check the application and help you understand what happens next, a specialist online service can provide that middle ground. And if your circumstances are complicated enough that you need advice about the wider legal consequences of your decisions, a solicitor is likely to be the right choice.

The destination is the same: a properly made and registered Lasting Power of Attorney. The journey is what changes. For us, that is the most useful way to think about Power of Attorney services.

You are not paying for a more valid LPA. You are paying for more support getting to a valid LPA. And if that support helps you avoid a mistake, understand what you are signing and get the document in place before your family needs it, that can be money well spent.