LPA vs Deputyship: What's the Difference?

People often ask me whether an LPA and a deputyship are much the same thing. They are not. They are meant to solve the same problem, which is who looks after your affairs if you can no longer manage them yourself, but they come at that problem from opposite ends. One you sort out quietly, in your own time, while all is well. The other is arranged by a court, for you, once it is too late to do anything else. I want to set out the difference plainly, because it is one of the more important choices most people never realise they are making.

The key difference: before or after you lose capacity

Everything turns on timing. An LPA is a document you put in place while you still have the mental capacity to understand it and to decide who you trust. Deputyship only comes into the picture once that window has closed, when a person can no longer make their own decisions and there is no LPA to fall back on.

Put simply, an LPA is planning ahead. Deputyship is picking up the pieces. If you have made an LPA, the question of a deputy never arises. It is only when nothing was arranged in advance that a family has to go to the court and ask for one.

How a Lasting Power of Attorney works

A Lasting Power of Attorney lets you appoint one or more people, called your attorneys, to make decisions on your behalf if you are ever unable to make them yourself. There are two kinds, one covering property and financial affairs, the other covering health and welfare. You choose who acts, you can say how they must act, and you keep control of the whole thing while you have capacity.

Once the document is signed, it is registered with the Office of the Public Guardian. That is a one-off step. After that the LPA sits quietly in the drawer until the day it is needed, and it may never be needed at all. If you want the full picture of how these work, I have written a longer piece on what a Lasting Power of Attorney is, and you can read more about the service on our Lasting Power of Attorney page.

The point I would stress is that you are the one making the choices. You decide who acts for you, not a judge. That is the whole value of doing it in advance.

How deputyship works

Deputyship is what happens when no LPA was made and capacity has already gone. A relative, usually a husband, wife or grown-up child, has to apply to the Court of Protection to be appointed as the person's deputy. The court considers the application and, if it is satisfied, appoints a deputy and sets out what they are allowed to do.

It is a more formal business than an LPA, and it does not end once the appointment is made. A deputy has to pay an application fee to start with. Then there are ongoing supervision fees each year, and the deputy must report annually to the Office of the Public Guardian, setting out the decisions they have made and how the person's money has been managed. In other words, the oversight carries on for as long as the deputyship lasts.

The fees for all this do change from time to time, so I will not quote you exact figures here. What matters is that you understand the shape of it: an application fee, then annual supervision fees, then the yearly work of accounting for what you have done. Do check the current position on gov.uk before you rely on any particular number.

Cost and time compared

This is where the two really part company. An LPA is a one-off. You arrange it once, pay to register it once, and that is that. A deputyship, by contrast, has a cost that keeps coming round every year, because the court supervises the deputy for the whole of the period they are acting.

Time is the other difference, and people underestimate it. An LPA, once registered, is ready the moment it is called upon. A deputyship application takes months to go through, and in the meantime nobody has the legal authority to act. Bills go unpaid, care fees sit unsettled, and the family can only wait. I have watched that happen, and it is a wretched position to be in when you are already worried about someone you love.

Why an LPA is almost always the better choice

When you weigh the two up, the LPA wins on nearly every count. It is cheaper. It is quicker. You choose your own attorneys rather than leaving it to the court to decide who is suitable. You can spell out how you want things handled. And there is none of the annual supervision and reporting that comes with being a deputy.

A lady came to see me a few years ago about her own affairs, and in passing she told me what her family had been through with her late father. He had suffered a stroke without any warning and lost the capacity to manage his money almost overnight. There was no LPA. The family had to apply for deputyship, and it took the better part of half a year before anyone could so much as touch his bank account. His care home fees mounted up in the meantime, and her mother spent months fretting over money she could not reach. She had come to me, she said, so that her own children would never have to go through the same thing. We had her LPAs in place within a few weeks.

That is the difference in a nutshell. A little planning spares your family a great deal of trouble at the worst possible time.

What if it's already too late?

I should be honest, because sometimes the moment has passed. If a person has already lost the capacity to understand and make an LPA, then an LPA is no longer an option. The law will not allow one to be made on their behalf. In that situation deputyship is the only route left, and a relative will have to apply to the Court of Protection.

With something like dementia, capacity is not lost all at once. In the earlier stages a person may still understand perfectly well what an LPA is and who they wish to appoint, and if so, there is still time to put one in place. It is worth taking advice quickly rather than assuming the door has closed. But once capacity has genuinely gone, deputyship it is, and there is no way round it.

That, if I am honest, is the reason I would rather people sorted their LPAs out sooner than later. Nobody expects to lose capacity, and that is precisely the trouble. By the time it is obvious you need an LPA, it is often the one moment you can no longer make one.

Common questions

What is the difference between an LPA and deputyship?

An LPA is a Lasting Power of Attorney that you set up in advance, while you still have capacity, choosing who will act for you. Deputyship is granted by the Court of Protection after someone has already lost capacity, when no LPA is in place. The court appoints and supervises the deputy.

Is deputyship more expensive than an LPA?

Yes, considerably. A deputyship involves an application fee to the Court of Protection, and then ongoing annual supervision fees for as long as the deputyship lasts, along with the work of preparing yearly reports. An LPA is a one-off arrangement with a single registration fee. Please check the current fees, as they change.

Can I still make an LPA for a relative who has dementia?

Only if they still have the mental capacity to understand and make the LPA. In the early stages of dementia that may well be possible. Once capacity has been lost, an LPA can no longer be made, and the only route left is to apply to the Court of Protection for deputyship.

How long does deputyship take?

A deputyship application usually takes several months from start to finish, sometimes longer if the court needs more information. During that time no one has legal authority to manage the person's affairs, which can leave bills and care arrangements in limbo. An LPA, once registered, is there the moment it is needed.

Which is better, an LPA or deputyship?

An LPA is almost always better. It is cheaper, quicker and lets you choose who acts for you and how. Deputyship is slower, more costly and more restrictive, and it is really only for cases where capacity has already been lost and no LPA exists.