Planning ahead

Nobody enjoys thinking about what happens when they're no longer here. But taking a few practical steps now can spare your family a great deal of stress, confusion and expense during an already difficult time. Most of these steps cost little or nothing, and once they're done, they're done.

This page covers the key things you can put in place today – from making sure someone you trust can manage your affairs if you lose capacity, to recording your wishes about medical treatment and organ donation.

Lasting power of attorney

A lasting power of attorney (LPA) is a legal document that lets you choose someone you trust – your "attorney" – to make decisions on your behalf if you ever become unable to make them yourself. There are two types:

• Property and financial affairs – covers bank accounts, bills, pensions, selling property. This type can be used as soon as it's registered (with your permission), or only when you lose capacity, depending on how you set it up.
• Health and welfare – covers medical treatment, care arrangements, life-sustaining treatment decisions. This type can only be used when you lack the mental capacity to decide for yourself.

You can set up one or both. Each LPA costs £92 to register with the Office of the Public Guardian (OPG), so both together cost £184. Reductions and exemptions are available if you're on certain means-tested benefits or have an income below £12,000 (gov.uk – lasting power of attorney, verified March 2026).

Registration takes 8 to 10 weeks, and the LPA can only be used once it's registered – so this is worth doing well in advance, while you're healthy and have capacity. If you don't have an LPA and you lose capacity, your family may need to apply to the Court of Protection instead, which is slower, more expensive and more stressful. Having an LPA in place can also simplify matters during probate, particularly for the property and financial affairs type. Our full guide to lasting power of attorney covers both types, the registration process and the fee reductions available.

General (ordinary) power of attorney

A general power of attorney – also called an ordinary power of attorney – is a different document that is often mistaken for an LPA. It lets someone manage your money and property while you still have mental capacity, and it needs no registration and no fee. People use one when they're going abroad for a few months, going into hospital for a planned procedure, or want someone to complete a property sale on their behalf.

The catch is that it can only be used while the person who granted it still has mental capacity (gov.uk – Make decisions on behalf of someone). It gives no cover at all if capacity is lost, which is what an LPA is for. Our guide to the general power of attorney explains what it covers, how to set one up, and how to work out which of the two documents your situation needs.

Writing a will

If you die without a valid will, your estate is divided according to the rules of intestacy – and those rules may not match what you'd want. For example, under intestacy, an unmarried partner inherits nothing regardless of how long you've been together. Children, stepchildren and close friends can also miss out.

A will lets you decide who gets what, name guardians for your children, and make the probate process much more straightforward for whoever has to deal with your estate. We cover this in detail in our wills guide.

Gifting assets and care fees

A persistent myth is that giving your house away protects it from being used to pay for care. In reality, councils can investigate gifts made years or even decades earlier under the deprivation of assets rules, and there is no equivalent to inheritance tax's seven-year rule protecting a gift from this assessment. If a council decides avoiding a care charge was a significant motivation for a gift, it can charge you as though you still owned it – and the person who received the gift can become liable for the shortfall.

Our guide to gifting assets and care fees covers the current means-test thresholds, the mandatory disregards that do genuinely protect your home, and deferred payment agreements as a legitimate alternative to selling.

Pre-paid funeral plans

A pre-paid funeral plan lets you pay for your funeral in advance, usually at today's prices, so your family doesn't face the cost or the pressure of making arrangements at short notice. Plans typically cover the funeral director's services, though extras like flowers and catering may not be included – always check what's covered.

Since 29 July 2022, pre-paid funeral plan providers must be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). This means you're protected by the Financial Ombudsman Service if something goes wrong, and by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme if your provider goes out of business (FCA – funeral plans: check your provider is authorised). Before buying any plan, check the FCA register to confirm the provider is authorised. If they're not on the register, your money has no regulatory protection.

For more on funeral costs and what to expect, see our funeral planning guide.

Advance decisions (living wills)

An advance decision – sometimes called a living will – lets you record which medical treatments you'd refuse in the future, in case you lose the capacity to communicate your wishes. It's legally binding under the Mental Capacity Act 2005, and doctors must follow it as long as it's valid and applicable to the situation.

An advance decision can be made verbally or in writing for most treatments. However, if you want to refuse life-sustaining treatment (such as ventilation or CPR), the law requires it to be:

• in writing
• signed by you (or by someone on your behalf, in your presence)
• witnessed
• include a clear statement that the decision applies even if your life is at risk

It's worth discussing your advance decision with your GP and your family, so everyone knows your wishes. You can change or withdraw it at any time while you still have capacity (gov.uk – Mental Capacity Act: making decisions). Our full guide to advance decisions and living wills covers the validity rules in detail.

DNACPR and ReSPECT forms

A DNACPR ("do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation") form is a different thing again, and the one people most often misunderstand. It records a clinical decision made by a doctor that CPR should not be attempted if the heart or breathing stops, and it applies to CPR alone. Every other form of care, treatment and pain relief continues unchanged (NHS – DNACPR decisions).

Many parts of England, and some of Scotland, now use the ReSPECT process instead, which sets the CPR recommendation inside a broader plan covering what you would want in any emergency. Neither a DNACPR form nor a ReSPECT plan is legally binding, which is the key difference from an advance decision. Our guide to DNACPR and ReSPECT forms explains who decides, what say you and your family have, and how the systems differ across the four UK nations.

Organ donation

All four UK nations now operate an opt-out system for organ donation, meaning adults are generally considered willing to donate their organs after death unless they've recorded a decision not to:

• England – deemed consent since May 2020 (Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Act 2019)
• Wales – deemed consent since December 2015 (Human Transplantation (Wales) Act 2013)
• Scotland – deemed authorisation since March 2021 (Human Tissue (Authorisation) (Scotland) Act 2019)
• Northern Ireland – deemed consent since June 2023 (Dáithí's Law)

Even under opt-out, your family will always be consulted before donation goes ahead. The most helpful thing you can do is tell your family what you want – whether that's to donate or not. You can also register your decision (for or against) on the NHS Organ Donor Register. It takes two minutes and removes any doubt (NHS – UK organ donation laws).

Whole-body donation

Donating your body to medical science is a separate route from organ donation, regulated under the Human Tissue Act 2004 (Scotland has its own equivalent). Your body goes to a medical school for anatomical education and research rather than for transplant, and it runs on advance written consent rather than the opt-out system – next of kin cannot register a donation after you die.

Registration is done directly with a medical school, not the NHS Organ Donor Register, and there's a practical consequence families need to know before choosing this route: the body is usually retained for one to three years before cremation, so there's no body available for a funeral in the near term. Our guide to donating your body to medical science covers how to register, what can rule a donation out, and what this means for funeral timing.

Pets in a will

A pet cannot be a beneficiary of a will under English law – animals are legally property, not people – but you can still plan for their care. The reliable approach is a conditional gift: leave the pet to a named carer, along with a sum of money intended for their upkeep. Charities including Blue Cross and the Cinnamon Trust also run free schemes you can register for in advance, guaranteeing your pet a home if you die before they do.

Our guide to pets in a will explains what you can and can't do, what a "pet trust" means under English trust law, and what happens if you make no arrangement at all.

Where to start

If you do nothing else, set up a lasting power of attorney and write a will. These two documents cover the vast majority of situations that cause problems for families – and both are straightforward once you sit down and do them. An advance decision and checking your organ donation preferences can follow, and neither costs anything.