How to Sign Your Property and Financial Affairs LPA

If you've watched the video above, this is just a back-pocket summary. If you haven't watched it yet, watch first — the video walks through each signature in context.

Step 1 · Donor signs (you). Page 10, Section 9. You sign and date in front of your witness. Your witness signs alongside, with their full name and home address.

Step 2 · Certificate provider signs. Page 11, Section 10. Your certificate provider signs here. No witness needed on this section — they are themselves acting as a witness to your capacity.

Step 3 · Attorneys sign. Page 12 onwards (separate page for each attorney), all under Section 11. Each attorney signs in front of their own witness.

Final step · Application to register. Page 20, Section 15. Sign the Application to Register. Before you write a cheque, read the section below — many people pay nothing, and many more pay half. Then post the full pack.

A few quick rules across every signature:

• All signatures in black ink.
• Witnesses must be eighteen or over.
• An attorney cannot witness your signature.
• You cannot witness an attorney's signature.

If anyone makes a mistake on the document — please don't write on it to correct it. Get in touch and we'll send you a fresh page.

The Office of the Public Guardian charges £92 to register one LPA, or £184 for both. But there are two reductions, and a great many people qualify for one of them without ever being told.

You pay nothing at all if you receive any of these:

• Guarantee Credit, the guarantee element of Pension Credit
• Income-based Employment and Support Allowance
• Income-based Jobseeker's Allowance
• Income Support
• Housing Benefit
• Council Tax Benefit
• Local Housing Allowance
• Working Tax Credit, but only alongside Child Tax Credit, or the disability or severe disability element

You pay half, so £46 per LPA, if either:

• Your gross annual income before tax is £12,000 or less, or
• You receive Universal Credit

Universal Credit changed on 2 February 2026. It used to mean you paid nothing. It now means you pay half. If you were told otherwise before that date, this is why.

It is your circumstances that count, not your attorneys'. The reduction is assessed on the donor, the person making the LPA. A well-off donor with attorneys on low incomes gets nothing, and a donor on benefits qualifies even if the family helping them does not.

How to claim it. Fill in form LPA120 and send it with your LPA. You will need proof for the current financial year, from 1 April to 31 March, showing both the type of income or benefit and the amount. Bank statements on their own are not accepted.

One thing that removes the exemption. If you have been awarded personal injury damages of more than £16,000 and those were not disregarded when your benefits were assessed, you pay the full fee.