Free LPA Property & Finance Template

LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY

Property And Financial Affairs  ·  Mental Capacity Act 2005 Ss.9–14, Sch 1  ·  LPA Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/1253)

DONOR

PRIMARY ATTORNEY

SECOND ATTORNEY

This LASTING POWER OF ATTORNEY FOR PROPERTY AND FINANCIAL AFFAIRS is made on 2026-03-09 by Margaret Rose Thornton (also known as Margaret Rose Calloway), of 42 Elm Avenue, Leeds LS1 4HB (the "Donor") pursuant to sections 9 to 14 and Schedule 1 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the Lasting Powers of Attorney, Enduring Powers of Attorney and Public Guardian Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/1253, as amended). The Donor confirms that, at the date of signing, the Donor has the mental capacity required by sections 2 and 3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to make this LPA and understands its purpose, scope and the consequences of executing it. This LPA has no legal effect until it has been registered with the Office of the Public Guardian ("OPG").

The Donor hereby appoints James William Thornton, of 17 Oak Street, Sheffield S1 2GH (Son) as attorney to act in relation to the Donor’s property and financial affairs under section 9 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. The Donor also appoints Claire Alexandra Thornton, of 8 Park Road, York YO1 6AB (Daughter) as a further attorney. The attorneys shall act jointly and severally: they may act together or independently on any matter falling within the scope of this LPA. This is the most resilient arrangement: if any attorney becomes unable or unwilling to act, the remaining attorneys may continue.

The authority conferred by this LPA shall be exercisable only when, and to the extent that, the Donor lacks mental capacity (as defined in sections 2 and 3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005) to make the relevant decision at the relevant time. Capacity is to be assessed in accordance with the two-stage functional test in sections 2 and 3 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and chapter 4 of the MCA 2005 Code of Practice. The five statutory principles in section 1 MCA 2005 apply throughout: the presumption of capacity, all practicable steps to support decision-making, the right to make unwise decisions, the best-interests obligation, and the least-restrictive alternative. Where the "only when capacity is lost" option is selected, each attorney must assess capacity decision by decision and document the assessment where reasonably practicable.

The attorney(s) have general authority under section 9(1) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 to make decisions about, and manage, all of the Donor’s property and financial affairs. Without limitation, this includes: operating bank, building society and savings accounts; collecting pensions, state benefits, rental and dividend income; paying household bills, mortgage instalments, council tax, income tax, capital gains tax and other liabilities; buying, selling, letting, mortgaging, charging, repairing, insuring and otherwise dealing with real property in any tenure; making, varying, surrendering and managing investments (subject to the Trustee Act 2000 general duty of care); dealing with shares, ISAs, bonds, OEICs, unit trusts, ETFs and other financial instruments; opening, operating and closing brokerage and platform accounts; claiming and pursuing debts due to the Donor; conducting litigation in the Donor’s name (subject to the Court of Protection where required); dealing with HM Revenue and Customs, HM Land Registry, HM Courts and Tribunals Service, the Department for Work and Pensions and any local authority on the Donor’s behalf.

The attorney(s) must at all times act in the Donor’s best interests in accordance with section 4 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. In making any decision, the attorney(s) must: (a) consider all the relevant circumstances; (b) take into account the Donor’s past and present wishes, feelings, beliefs and values, including any written statement made when the Donor had capacity; (c) consult, so far as it is practicable and appropriate, anyone named by the Donor as someone to be consulted, any unpaid carer, anyone interested in the Donor’s welfare, and the replacement attorney(s) (if any); (d) consider whether the decision can be deferred until the Donor regains capacity; and (e) make no assumptions based merely on the Donor’s age, appearance, condition, or any aspect of behaviour. The attorney(s) must follow the principles in section 1 MCA 2005 and chapter 7 of the MCA 2005 Code of Practice.

Each attorney must: (a) keep the Donor’s money and property separate from their own and from that of any other person; (b) keep accurate records of decisions, receipts and expenditure on behalf of the Donor, and produce them on request to the OPG (section 58 MCA 2005); (c) exercise reasonable care and skill, applying the Trustee Act 2000 general duty of care where the attorney holds or invests the Donor’s funds; (d) not benefit personally from the appointment except as expressly authorised by this LPA or by section 12 MCA 2005; and (e) not delegate their authority save as permitted by section 7 of the Powers of Attorney Act 1971 and the MCA 2005. Each attorney is subject to the supervision of the Office of the Public Guardian and is liable in equity and at common law for breach of duty.

The attorney(s) may make gifts beyond the default limits in section 12 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005, subject to (i) any express monetary cap set out below, and (ii) the overriding duty under section 4 MCA 2005 to act in the Donor’s best interests. Any individual gift exceeding the express cap, and any gift of the family home or of a substantial asset, requires authorisation from the Court of Protection (see Re GM (MJ and JM v The Public Guardian) [2013] EWCOP 2966). The express monetary cap agreed by the Donor for any individual gift made without a Court of Protection order is: £500 per individual gift; £2,000 in aggregate per calendar year per recipient. The Donor has identified the following purposes for which broader gifting is intended: Birthday and Christmas gifts to my four grandchildren; charitable gifts to Macmillan Cancer Support and St Gemma’s Hospice consistent with my historical giving pattern..

The Donor appoints Sophie Margaret Thornton, of 3 Birch Lane, Manchester M1 2AB, born 1982-05-18 (Daughter-in-law) as replacement attorney, to step in only when all original attorneys have become unable or unwilling to act, so that the LPA continues to operate while at least one original attorney remains able to act (avoids unnecessary "stepping in" of the replacement). The appointment of a replacement attorney takes effect automatically on the occurrence of the triggering event and does not require a new LPA to be registered, provided the OPG is notified in accordance with the Lasting Powers of Attorney, Enduring Powers of Attorney and Public Guardian Regulations 2007 (Part 2). A replacement attorney owes the same duties under the MCA 2005 and the Trustee Act 2000 as the original attorneys.

Notwithstanding clause 3, the attorney(s) shall not sell, mortgage, charge, gift, surrender or otherwise dispose of the following specified property without (a) the prior written agreement of all then-acting attorneys, and (b) prior written advice from a solicitor regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority and (where the property is land) a chartered surveyor:

The freehold property at 42 Elm Avenue, Leeds LS1 4HB (HM Land Registry title number WYK345678).

This restriction is binding on the attorney(s) and must be disclosed to any conveyancer, lender or purchaser. Any disposition made in breach of this clause is voidable at the suit of the Donor or the Donor’s personal representatives.

No investment, switch, surrender or de-accumulation shall be made unless the attorney(s) have first obtained written advice from an FCA-authorised investment adviser. The advice and the decision taken upon it shall be recorded in writing and retained for inspection by the OPG.

Further detail: My current adviser is Hargreaves Personal Wealth (FCA reference 925378). My attorneys should contact him before any investment decision worth more than £5,000.

In carrying out their statutory duty under section 4(7) MCA 2005 to take into account the views of anyone named by the Donor as someone to be consulted, the attorney(s) shall consult the following persons on significant decisions:

Sarah Jane Thornton (my elder daughter) — 55 Cherry Tree Close, Leeds LS8 3PQ — sarah@example.co.uk
The Reverend Michael Greenfield, St Mary’s Parish Church, Leeds — on questions touching charitable gifts.

The duty is to consult, not to be bound by the response. Failure to consult on a significant decision may be evidence of a breach of duty in any subsequent complaint to the OPG or application to the Court of Protection.

Instructions (binding on the attorney(s)):
My attorneys must consult my registered GP and obtain a current capacity report before agreeing to the sale of my home at 42 Elm Avenue.
My attorneys must continue my Standing Order of £100 per month to Yorkshire Cancer Research while funds permit.

Preferences (non-binding guidance):
I would prefer that my Vanguard LifeStrategy 60% Equity ISA is retained and that no platform switch is made unless platform fees rise materially.
I would prefer my home insurance to remain with NFU Mutual.

Note: instructions must be drafted with care — instructions which conflict with the Donor’s best interests, are unworkable, are unlawful, or remove an attorney’s statutory duties will be severed or refused registration by the OPG.

Before this LPA is registered, the following persons shall be notified using Form LP3, in accordance with Schedule 1 paragraph 6 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Part 2 of the LPA Regulations 2007:

Sarah Jane Thornton (daughter), 55 Cherry Tree Close, Leeds LS8 3PQ
David Henry Thornton (brother), 12 Manor Road, Harrogate HG1 4SS

Each notified person has three (3) weeks from receipt of the notice in which to object to the registration on a prescribed ground (Form LPA007). Notification persons act as a safeguard against undue influence and fraud; they have no decision-making role thereafter.

Although this LPA terminates automatically on the Donor’s death (section 13(6)(a) MCA 2005), the attorney(s) may continue to deal with the Donor’s affairs for a strictly limited period of up to fourteen (14) days after death for the purposes of: (i) notifying banks, providers and HMRC of the death; (ii) paying urgent care home or hospice fees; (iii) securing the Donor’s home and personal property; and (iv) handing records and assets to the Donor’s personal representatives. Acts done in good faith and within this carve-out shall, so far as the law permits, attract the protection of the doctrine of relation back pending grant of probate or letters of administration. Beyond this period, all authority ceases and the personal representatives take over.

Dr Anne Whitfield, of 15 High Street Medical Practice, Leeds LS1 1AB (General Practitioner, GMC 7012345) has signed Part B of the prescribed form, certifying that, in their opinion: (a) the Donor understands the purpose and scope of this LPA and the consequences of executing it; (b) no fraud or undue pressure is being used to induce the Donor to make this LPA; and (c) there is nothing else that would prevent this LPA from being created. The certificate provider is a person acting in a professional capacity with the relevant skills (for example, a registered medical practitioner, solicitor, legal executive, registered social worker, registered psychologist or psychiatrist) and who is not a relative of the Donor or of any attorney. The certificate provider is independent of the attorneys, is not a relative of the Donor or any attorney, is not an employee or business partner of any attorney, is not the owner, manager, director or employee of any care home in which the Donor lives, and is not themselves an attorney under this or any other LPA or EPA of the Donor.

Robert James Calloway, of 22 Cherry Tree Close, Leeds LS8 3PQ (Retired bank manager) will witness the Donor’s signature in person on the same original prescribed form. The witness is aged 18 or over and is not any attorney or replacement attorney named in this LPA, in accordance with Schedule 1 paragraph 1(1)(c) of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Each attorney’s signature must likewise be witnessed in person; attorneys may witness each other’s signatures (but may not witness the Donor’s signature) and the certificate provider may witness an attorney’s signature. Signatures cannot be witnessed remotely or by electronic means — all parties must sign the same original document.

The Donor acknowledges and authorises the use of the Office of the Public Guardian "Use a lasting power of attorney" digital service (lastingpowerofattorney.service.gov.uk). On registration of this LPA, the OPG provides the Donor with a secure access code which the Donor may share with each attorney; each attorney may then grant view-only access to a bank, building society, pension provider, brokerage / investment platform, HM Revenue and Customs, Department for Work and Pensions, local authority or other relying organisation, who can verify the LPA in real time without requiring a certified paper copy. This is particularly useful for satisfying the Financial Conduct Authority's authorised firms who must verify an attorney's authority under SUP 16 / FCA Handbook and for accessing the Donor's digital banking, Open Banking, Pensions Dashboard services and online HMRC personal-tax account. The attorneys are further authorised to use the "Track my LPA" service to monitor application progress. The parties acknowledge that the Powers of Attorney Act 2023 will, when the Lord Chancellor commences the Schedule, enable LPAs to be made and registered fully online with digital identity verification of donor, attorneys and certificate provider. Nothing in this clause supersedes the requirement under Schedule 1 paragraph 1 MCA 2005 that the original paper or fully-online form be properly executed and witnessed in person.

The Donor confers on the attorney(s) express authority to manage, deal with and dispose of the Donor's digital assets, including (without limitation) cryptocurrency held in self-custody wallets or on a regulated exchange (Bitcoin, Ether, stablecoins and others), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), tokenised securities and tokenised real-world assets, digital-art files, domain registrations, online-business goodwill, in-game digital items and any other intangible digital property within the Donor's estate.

The Donor relies on the analysis of the High Court in AA v Persons Unknown [2019] EWHC 3556 (Comm), the Court of Appeal in Tulip Trading Ltd v van der Laan [2023] EWCA Civ 83, the Law Commission's "Digital Assets" final report (Law Com No 412, June 2024) and the Property (Digital Assets etc) Bill 2024-25 currently before Parliament. Digital assets are personal property in their own right, forming a third category alongside choses in possession and choses in action.

(a) Custody and access. The attorney(s) may take possession of any private key, seed phrase, recovery phrase, hardware wallet, paper wallet or two-factor-authentication device necessary to control the Donor's digital assets, and may instruct any custodian or exchange to recognise the attorney's authority. Where the Donor has deposited credentials with a solicitor, in a sealed envelope or in a digital-legacy vault (e.g. password-manager Emergency Access), the attorney is authorised to obtain release on production of this LPA.

(b) Disposal and reinvestment. The attorney(s) may sell, swap, transfer, stake (subject to the duty of care under the Trustee Act 2000), or convert any digital asset to fiat currency where consistent with the Donor's best interests under section 4 MCA 2005. Investment-related restrictions in the Scope clause above apply equally to digital assets.

(c) Tax. The attorney(s) shall report any chargeable disposal to HM Revenue and Customs in accordance with the HMRC Cryptoassets Manual (CRYPTO22000 et seq.), including the Self-Assessment SA108 capital-gains pages.

(d) Recovery from third parties. The attorney(s) may pursue civil recovery against any third party (including persons unknown) holding the Donor's digital assets without authority, relying on the freezing-order jurisdiction confirmed in AA v Persons Unknown.

Where any attorney exercises authority in reliance on, or in response to, an AI tool, machine-learning system or automated decision-making process used by a bank, investment platform, robo-advice service, pension provider or other financial institution (including AI credit-scoring algorithms, AI-driven investment-allocation engines, algorithmic-trading platforms, AI fraud-detection or anti-money-laundering tools, AI-assisted financial-planning chatbots) ("AI Financial Tool"), the attorney is directed:

(a) No solely automated decisions. No decision concerning the Donor's investments, asset allocation, pension drawdown, credit applications, or any other financial matter shall be made on a solely automated basis. The attorney shall always provide meaningful human review of any AI Financial Tool output. This reflects the Donor's right under Article 22(1) UK GDPR not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing producing legal or similarly significant effects (an investment loss is plainly significant).

(b) Transparency. The attorney shall, on the Donor's behalf, exercise the data-subject rights to meaningful information about the logic involved in any AI Financial Tool under Articles 13(2)(f), 14(2)(g) and 15(1)(h) UK GDPR, and shall not be deterred by the firm's assertion of model-proprietary protection from obtaining sufficient information to evaluate the AI output.

(c) Best interests + Trustee Act 2000. Every decision taken by the attorney remains subject to the best-interests test in section 4 MCA 2005 and the statutory duty of care in section 1 of the Trustee Act 2000 (skill and care reasonable in the circumstances, having regard to special knowledge / experience). An AI Financial Tool output is one input among many; it does not displace the attorney's duty to consider the standard investment criteria (suitability + diversification) under sections 3-4 Trustee Act 2000.

(d) Hallucination and bias. The attorney recognises the documented risks of AI hallucination (fabricated investment performance figures or product features) and algorithmic bias (especially in age and disability cohorts for credit-scoring), and shall not act on AI output that is unverified, materially inconsistent with the underlying market data, or that conflicts with the FCA Consumer Duty (PRIN 2A) where the Donor is a retail customer.

This LPA has no legal effect until it has been registered by the Office of the Public Guardian under Schedule 1, Part 2 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and Part 2 of the LPA Regulations 2007. Following the Powers of Attorney Act 2023, the application to register must be made by the Donor, either online through the OPG digital service (rolling out in phases) or by submitting paper Form LP1F. The current registration fee is £92 per LPA (in force since 17 November 2025; the Property and Financial Affairs LPA and any Health and Welfare LPA are charged separately). A fee exemption or remission may apply where the Donor’s gross annual income is below £12,000 or the Donor receives certain means-tested benefits (Form LPA120 — note that automatic Universal Credit pass ceased on 2 February 2026). The OPG enters the registered LPA on the statutory register maintained under section 58(1)(b) MCA 2005; searches may be made against the register on payment of the prescribed fee. Registration typically takes 8–10 weeks where the application is error-free.

The Donor may revoke this LPA at any time while the Donor has capacity to do so, by executing a deed of revocation and notifying the OPG and each attorney in writing (section 13 and Schedule 1 paragraphs 17–18 MCA 2005). A registered LPA that has been revoked remains on the statutory register until the OPG removes it following notification. The following events also have effects on this LPA, as set out in sections 13 and 22 MCA 2005: bankruptcy or insolvency of the Donor (terminates the property and financial affairs LPA on registration of the bankruptcy order); bankruptcy of an attorney (terminates that attorney’s appointment); dissolution of the Donor’s marriage or civil partnership with an attorney (terminates that attorney’s appointment unless the LPA provides otherwise); the death or loss of capacity of an attorney; and disclaimer by an attorney in accordance with the LPA Regulations 2007.

This LPA is made under the laws of England and Wales pursuant to the Mental Capacity Act 2005 and the LPA Regulations 2007 (SI 2007/1253, as amended). Any dispute as to the validity, scope, exercise, or revocation of this LPA shall be determined by the Court of Protection under sections 16 and 22 of the Mental Capacity Act 2005. Nothing in this LPA prevents any person with sufficient interest from applying to the Court of Protection for directions, an order, the appointment of a deputy under section 16, or the imposition of safeguards under section 23.