5: How long does it take to make a Lasting Power of Attorney?
How long is a piece of string? It depends on how long you procrastinate. Honestly, of the people I know who have put LPAs in place, the procrastination is the part that takes the time. If you are focussed then all the forms can be done pretty quickly. And if you are using a legal adviser then they will tell you of their timescales.
Below I give an indication of the minimum possible times.
Completion of the form – 1 hour to a few days
The process itself is quite straightforward. If you have all the information to hand, the online forms can be done in less than an hour. I recommend doing your thinking ahead of completing the forms – see 6: Information and Decisions for more information on the decisions you need to make.
Signing of the form – within a day if all parties are present
There is a particular order that the donor, witnesses, certificate provider and attorneys (and their witnesses) must sign, so it’s not something to hurry.
However, it’s not difficult – the forms are clear and it is easy to follow the step by step instructions – and it can be done within a day if all parties are present.
It’s obvious but the more attorneys you have the more signatures you will need to arrange and potentially the longer it will take.
I completed my own forms during lockdown in May 2020. This made the witnessing of signatures a little more challenging (from a two meter distance, setting down the paperwork and retreating to allow the witness to pick it up, use of own pens and copious hand washing). It also meant that rather than visiting my certificate provider and attorneys to collect signatures I ended up posting the forms to them to sign. Even with this drawn out process, it was all done within a couple of weeks.
Registering the forms – several weeks
The longest part of the actual process is the registration. The Office of the Public Guardian a while to process the forms. They send a letter to the confirm receipt and contact the donors and attorneys. They say that it takes 2-3 weeks for them to do this. For me, this took 6 weeks but as I mentioned above it was during the lockdown of 2020 so they may have been more busy than usual.
The law requires a 4 week wait. If there are no objections (from the donor or attorneys) then the LPA will be registered. The OPG quote a timescale of 8-10 weeks from receipt but for me the process took rather longer. I sent the forms off on mid June, received confirmation at the end of July and the LPA was registered at the end of September. A total of three and a half months or 14 weeks.
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