Lasting Power of Attorney for Financial Decisions: A Guide for Expats

Most financially informed individuals know about the importance of a will. Far fewer have given equivalent attention to the Lasting Power of Attorney — particularly for financial affairs. This omission can have profound consequences. A will deals with what happens to your assets after your death; an LPA deals with what happens if you lose mental capacity during your lifetime.

For internationally mobile individuals, the LPA raises additional complexity: overseas execution, international recognition, and the need for jurisdiction-specific equivalents in countries where you hold significant assets.

What Is an LPA?

A Lasting Power of Attorney (Property and Financial Affairs) is a legal document that authorises one or more individuals — the "attorneys" — to make decisions about your financial affairs on your behalf. This includes managing bank accounts, making investment decisions, collecting rental income, dealing with property, paying bills, and managing tax affairs.

The LPA takes effect in two situations:

1. When you choose to activate it (with capacity intact, for convenience — perhaps during a long illness or period abroad).
2. When you lose mental capacity and can no longer manage your affairs yourself.

The LPA is created under the Mental Capacity Act 2005 in England and Wales. It must be registered with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) before it can be used. An unregistered LPA is legally worthless.

Why Expats Must Act Immediately

The most critical point about the LPA is that it must be created while you still have mental capacity. Once capacity is lost — whether through a stroke, dementia, an accident, or another cause — you cannot create an LPA. The only alternative is the Court of Protection.

The Court of Protection process — appointing a deputy to manage the affairs of an incapacitated individual — is:

• Slow (typically 6–12 months from application to appointment).
• Expensive (application fees plus solicitor costs typically £3,000–£6,000 or more).
• Inflexible (the deputy's powers are limited to what the court authorises; a specific application must be made for any significant decision such as selling a property).
• Uncertain (you have no say over who is appointed as deputy).

The contrast with an LPA is stark. With an LPA properly registered during your lifetime, your chosen attorney can manage your affairs immediately and flexibly, in accordance with the guidance you have provided. Without one, your family may spend a year in legal process at a time of significant personal stress.

For expats, there is an additional complication: if you are living overseas when you lose capacity, the UK Court of Protection application becomes even more difficult to manage from abroad, and it may be unclear which country's courts have jurisdiction.

Register your LPA now, not when you need it. The OPG's current registration time is approximately 8–10 weeks from submission of the complete application. Factoring in preparation time, you should allow at least three months from deciding to make an LPA to it being registered and available for use.

The Digital LPA (2024 Reform)

The OPG significantly reformed the LPA process in 2024, introducing a new digital service for creating and registering LPAs online. The digital LPA is:

• Faster to register (the new service is designed to reduce the 8–10 week processing time).
• Cheaper (registration fee is £92 per LPA from November 2025; fee remission is available for those on low incomes).
• More straightforward for straightforward situations.

However, the solicitor-prepared route remains the right choice for complex situations — where there are multiple attorneys who may disagree, where conditions or restrictions need to be imposed, where there is a risk of family dispute, or where the attorney lives overseas.

You should create two LPAs: one for Property and Financial Affairs, and one for Health and Welfare. Both are equally important. This guide focuses on the financial LPA, but the health and welfare LPA — covering decisions about medical treatment and care — should not be neglected.

Overseas Execution

A UK LPA can be signed by the donor when they are overseas. However, the execution requirements must be met:

• The donor's signature must be witnessed by a "certificate provider" — a person who certifies that the donor understands the LPA, is not being coerced, and has capacity. The certificate provider must be either: (a) a named person who has known the donor personally for at least two years; or (b) a professional such as a solicitor, GP, or social worker.
• The certificate provider must be physically present at the time of signing — video call certification is not accepted for the current LPA format.
• If the donor is overseas, a local solicitor or appropriate professional who meets the criteria may act as certificate provider (with appropriate identification and confirmation of their qualifications).

Planning ahead is essential. If you are living overseas and have not yet made an LPA, consider arranging execution during your next visit to the UK, or identifying a suitable certificate provider in your country of residence in advance.

International Recognition

A UK LPA registered with the OPG is valid in England and Wales. Its recognition overseas is not automatic.

For many internationally mobile individuals, the most significant risk is that their overseas bank or property manager will not accept a UK LPA without further steps. Common requirements include:

• An apostille: a certificate confirming the authenticity of the OPG-issued document. This can be obtained via the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office.
• A certified translation into the local language.
• Local notarisation: some countries require the LPA to be presented before a local notary public.
• A local equivalent: some countries will not accept a foreign PoA at all for certain purposes, and require a locally executed power of attorney in the local form.

France: a UK LPA is generally not accepted by French notaries or banks for dealings with French property. A French "procuration" (mandat) executed before a notaire is required. This must comply with French formal requirements and is typically much narrower in scope than a UK LPA.

Spain: a Spanish "poder notarial" executed before a Spanish notary (or before a UK notary with an apostille) is required for dealings with Spanish property or accounts.

UAE: power of attorney requirements are strict and jurisdiction-specific within the UAE. Different documents are required for the DIFC, the Abu Dhabi courts, and the onshore UAE courts. Legal advice from a UAE-qualified lawyer is essential.

USA: each US state has its own power of attorney requirements. A UK LPA is not automatically recognised and a US-state-specific durable power of attorney is typically required.

The practical recommendation is simple: for every jurisdiction where you hold significant assets, create a jurisdiction-specific equivalent of the LPA at the same time as your overseas will for that jurisdiction.

The LPA vs Trust for Capacity Planning

For individuals with substantial assets, a trust can provide a more robust solution to capacity planning than an LPA.

In a trust structure, the trustees hold legal title to the trust assets. If the settlor (you) loses capacity, the trustees continue to manage the trust assets — they do not need to refer to an LPA or seek court authority. The trust operates independently of the settlor's mental capacity once it is properly established.

This means that, for significant investment portfolios or property holdings placed in trust, the concern about LPA recognition or overseas enforcement largely falls away. The trustees have authority over the assets regardless of the settlor's capacity.

However, a trust cannot cover everything — personal bank accounts, pension rights, and assets held personally outside the trust still require an LPA. The two tools are complementary, not alternatives.

Choosing Your Attorney

The choice of attorney is as important as making the LPA. Your attorney should be:

• Trustworthy and honest: your attorney can access all your financial accounts and has enormous power over your affairs.
• Financially competent: they should be comfortable managing investments, dealing with tax affairs, and liaising with professional advisers.
• Available and willing: living overseas as an expat, you should ensure your attorney can practically manage UK affairs.
• Geographically accessible: for overseas assets, a local attorney may be more practical than a UK-based one.

Consider appointing more than one attorney (either jointly for major decisions, or jointly and severally for day-to-day decisions). This provides a check on unilateral action and continuity if one attorney is unavailable.

A replacement attorney should also be named — if the primary attorney loses capacity, predeceases you, or otherwise becomes unable to act, the replacement steps in without requiring a new LPA.

Important Considerations

The law governing LPAs and mental capacity varies between UK jurisdictions (England and Wales, Scotland (continuing power of attorney), and Northern Ireland have different legislation). Overseas recognition requires specific local legal advice. This article is intended as a general guide only and does not constitute legal advice. The requirements, fees, and processing times referred to are as understood at June 2026 and may change. Seek qualified legal advice from a solicitor experienced in cross-border capacity planning.

How Global Investments Can Help

Global Investments works with internationally mobile clients to coordinate capacity and estate planning across the jurisdictions relevant to their lives. We can refer you to specialist solicitors in the UK and overseas for LPA and equivalent document preparation, and we work alongside trustees to ensure that trust and LPA arrangements are complementary. Our planning process covers the full picture: wills, LPAs, trusts, pension nominations, and beneficiary designations — ensuring your financial affairs can be managed by the right people, whatever happens. Contact our team to arrange a consultation.