Digital LPAS

Wills and Probate Solicitor Matthew Kelly explains why digital LPAs may become something to watch out for in the near future in his most recent blog…

What is an LPA?

Lasting Powers of Attorney (LPAs) are important legal agreements that allow people to appoint trusted parties as attorneys to assist them with both their financial and health affairs. The attorneys are granted legal authority to make decisions for the donor once they have lost mental capacity (health & welfare) before loss of capacity and after loss of capacity (financial affairs).

Currently, LPAs are paper-based legal documents though the recent Powers of Attorney Act 2023 means that, in due course, it will be possible to make and register an LPA entirely online. The Office of Public Guardian (The OPG) is still in the process of developing the necessary IT systems so the timeframe for rolling out the digitalised process is still to be confirmed.

Why Go Digital?

The hope is that digitalising the process will speed up the registration process for LPAs which is currently 4 -5 months on average. The digitalisation process will allow the OPG to spot potential errors in an LPA at early stage and allow errors to be corrected online as opposed to LPAs being posted back and forth between the applicant and the OPG.

The Law Society has raised some concerns about the digitalising of the process. Some 1.5 million homes in the UK do not have access to the internet. Equally, there are concerns regarding ID verification and how the OPG would seek to prevent the digitalisation process being abused.

Another more practical concern is that the online process may well prove to be complicated even for people that are relatively digitally literate. There is a risk that some donors might only be able to use the online service by relying on significant support from others, raising the risk that the donor could be steered toward appointing certain attorneys and setting up their LPAs in a manner that is strongly guided by the person providing the IT support.

The OPG has partially addressed some of these concerns by confirming that, notwithstanding the digital process, the option to make an LPA through a paper-based application will remain.

However the digitalisation process unfolds, Timms remain committed to assisting donors in making LPAs and providing expert advice regarding the terms of both Property & Financial LPAS and Health & Welfare LPAs.