Who needs to be involved when signing your Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) forms?

• The donor: the person who the LPA is being made for.
• The certificate provider: ensures the donor understands the LPA.
• Any attorney and replacement attorneys: people chosen to make decisions for the donor.
• A witness: not an attorney or replacement attorneys (often the certificate provider).
• The person who is registering the LPA: either the donor or the attorneys.

Everyone should read the document carefully as you're entering into a legal agreement and it's important that the details are correct.

N.B. Sign the LPA in ink as applications with pencil or with amendments may not be accepted.

Step-by-step on how to sign your Lasting Power of Attorney (LPA) forms:

Follow these instructions step-by-step as it needs to be signed in a specific order.

1. The donor signs the LPA

The donor needs to sign the LPA first. They will need to sign the following sections in this order:

• Complete Section 5.
• Sign Section 9.

Someone must witness the donor signing the LPA.

Who can be a witness?

A witness must be over 18.
They cannot be an attorney or replacement attorney.
They can be your certificate provider (this is very common).

2. The certificate provider signs the LPA

The certificate provide ensures that the donor understands what they are signing and are under no pressure to sign. They will need to do the following, in this order:

• Read Sections 8 and 10.
• They then sign Section 10.
  The certificate provider must sign after the donor has signed and before the attorney signs.

3. The attorney and replacement attorney sign the LPA

The attorney and replacement attorneys need to sign the LPA next. They must do so after step 2.

They need to sign:

• Section 11. Section 11 is repeated on pages 12-15, attorneys and replacement attorneys must sign one each.

Every attorney's signature will need to be witnessed.

Who can be a witness?

The donor cannot be a witness.
Commonly the certificate provider acts as the witness here too.

4. The person registering the LPA now signs it

When you are ready to register the LPA with the Office of the Public Guardian, the person who is applying needs to sign it and send it off.

Who applies to register?

• The donor or the attorneys.

They will need to following the instructions laid out in Sections 12-15.
And sign Section 15.
This must be done last.

If you have any questions you can call the Office of the Public Guardian on: 0300 456 0300.