The Estate Registry (TER), which provides a suite of end-of-life services including InheritNOW, LegacyNOW, and bereavement notification platforms NotifyNOW and Settld, says reforms to the system of Lasting Powers of Attorney in England and Wales must balance efficiency with protections.
Significant reforms to the framework of LPAs in England and Wales have been in the offing since the Act received Royal Assent three years ago, with the phased introduction due to be completed soon. It marks one of the most comprehensive overhauls of the system in more than a decade.
The legislation introduces wide-ranging measures aimed at modernising how LPAs are created, signed, registered and safeguarded. While an initial amendment – enabling chartered legal executives to certify powers of attorney – has already taken effect, the broader structural reforms will fundamentally reshape the operation.
The changes are being driven by mounting operational pressures within the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), the public body responsible for maintaining the national register of LPAs.
Howard Enders, chief operating officer at The Estate Registry (pictured), says:
“In recent years, the OPG has faced significant backlogs and prolonged registration times, largely attributed to a predominantly paper-based system and the administrative demands of managing a growing volume of applications.
“The new framework seeks to address these challenges by introducing a more efficient, digitally-enabled model designed to reduce errors, strengthen identity verification processes and mitigate the risk of fraud.”
A recent increase in the registration fee to £92 is intended to support investment in upgraded infrastructure, with the long-term objective of delivering a more streamlined service for families and advisers.
At the heart of the reforms is a shift toward digitisation. While paper applications will remain available, the restructured system prioritises online creation and management.
Under the new model, donors – individuals granting authority under an LPA or authorised organisations acting on their behalf – will create secure online accounts through the Government’s OneLogin platform, supported by two-factor authentication. Although an LPA will continue to operate as a legal deed, the process for completing it will change significantly.
Rather than relying on a single paper document circulated among all parties, the digital system will require separate online forms to be completed by donors, certificate providers, solicitors and trusts. All parties must sign within a two-year period.
Mandatory identity checks are expected to apply to donors and certificate providers, introducing additional verification at the point of creation. At present, solicitors are not expected to be subject to the same compulsory identity requirements – a distinction that has prompted debate within the legal profession.
The reforms also place emphasis on safeguarding. The role of the certificate provider – the individual responsible for confirming that the donor understands the LPA and is not acting under undue influence – will expand under the new system.
Certificate providers will be required to witness the donor’s signature and take steps to ensure that the donor understands the nature and consequences of the document. Where a donor is unable to sign digitally, an additional witness will be required to validate the process.
Government guidance is expected to clarify how certificate providers should discharge these enhanced responsibilities in practice.
Importantly, there will remain no statutory requirement for a regulated legal professional to act as certificate provider.
Enders says: “Some practitioners have expressed concern about the consistency of safeguarding standards where non-professionals undertake this role, particularly in cases involving elderly or vulnerable donors.
“The registration process itself will also undergo substantial change. Under the new framework, only donors will be permitted to submit an LPA for registration. The registration fee must be paid at the outset before other parties are invited to complete their sections. Online payment methods will be prioritised over traditional cheque-based submissions, which may cause problems for adults who are not digitally literate.”
The reforms introduce a digital mechanism for requesting rectifications and notifying named individuals. Objections to registration will initially be considered by the OPG, with a right of appeal reserved to the Court of Protection.
The measures are intended to streamline administrative handling and reduce delays that have historically left families waiting months for registration – often during periods of urgent need.
Enders adds: “While the modernisation agenda has been broadly welcomed, practitioners have highlighted practical questions regarding implementation – particularly when advising older clients or those with limited digital literacy.
“Currently, advisers prepare physical draft LPAs for clients to review in person. Transitioning to a predominantly digital format may complicate that approach. Although solicitors or legal executives may initiate online applications during home visits, uncertainty remains about how donors will independently access and complete digital documentation once the adviser has left.”
Data protection and safeguarding considerations have also been raised. Concerns include the potential misuse of online portals, the management of digital access codes and the possibility that attorneys could gain control of a donor’s account without adequate oversight.
Questions persist regarding the future status of certified paper copies and whether banks, care providers and other institutions will consistently accept digital verification methods.
The objective of the reforms is to create a faster, more secure and fraud-resistant LPA system capable of meeting modern demand. However, legal professionals caution that digitisation alone does not automatically guarantee enhanced protection.
Unlike other regulated private client services, such as conveyancing and probate, there remains no requirement for a regulated professional to serve as certificate provider.
Some commentators have suggested that this issue may warrant reconsideration once the new system is fully operational.
As implementation approaches, the profession will monitor whether the reforms achieve their intended reduction in OPG processing times or whether new administrative complexities emerge.
This article was submitted by The Estate Registry as part of an advertising agreement with Today’s Wills and Probate. The views expressed in this article are those of the submitter and not those of Today’s Wills and Probate.
2 responses
The majority of my clients are elderly and not one of them has the slightest interest in doing anything ‘digitally’, neither a Will nor an LPA.
Given that fraud can only occur once an LPA has been registered, the best safeguard is not to register until it is needed (if it ever is – if not you never suffer the £92 fee). If the registration period could be reduced then delayed registration wouldn’t generally be an issue. Instead the £92 will effectively be a compulsory tax on making an LPA whether it is needed in the long term or not whilst at the same time removing the best safeguard for Finance LPAs.. Entering a restriction on use post-registration means that the cost of a capacity report may be needed as well as a delay in obtaining that report and so achieves nothing other than adding expense to reimpose safeguards that shouldn’t be removed in the first place.