Facing a capacity decision for someone right now? → Capacity check tool · Power of attorney guide
They answer the same question two different ways: an advance decision records your answers; an LPA appoints your person.
When both documents exist and touch the same treatment decision, the Mental Capacity Act resolves it by date: the later document wins.
LPA made after the advance decision — and the LPA gives your attorney authority over that same treatment: your attorney's decision governs — the later LPA displaces the earlier AD for that decision. You chose a person after you chose an answer; the law honours the person.
Advance decision made after the LPA: the AD takes precedence for the treatment it specifies (provided it's valid and applicable) — your attorney cannot consent to treatment you've validly refused since appointing them. You chose an answer after you chose a person; the law honours the answer.
Neither document is "stronger." The statute simply trusts your most recent word. Which means the real risk isn't having both — it's having both and forgetting which came last.
The clean setup isn't choosing between them — it's deciding, on purpose, what each one covers. A common, coherent shape: the AD holds the few specific, researched refusals you are certain about; the LPA holds everything else, trusting your attorney's judgment for the situations you can't foresee.
Date everything — the whole regime runs on dates.
Tell your attorney the AD exists and where it lives — an unknown AD is a courtroom, not a plan.
Re-date deliberately after every revision — if you update one document, check the other still says what you mean, because the update just changed which one wins.
Where a dispute is genuinely likely — family conflict, contested beliefs about care — say so to a professional while drafting. A short conversation now beats a best-interests meeting later.
Keep both documents and their dates in one place your people can findWith no AD and no LPA, no one you chose holds the decision. Clinicians decide in your best interests under the Act, consulting those who care for you — your family is consulted, not in charge. For many households that discovery, not the paperwork, is what starts the planning.
Reading this is the first step. Caring for a Parent covers the LPA route, the OPG registration timeline, and the conversation that has to happen first — prepared personally from a short intake about your household.
See Caring for a ParentHousehold dossier
Keep both documents, their dates, and their locations in one place your people can find.
See the household dossierInformational, not legal advice, and covers England & Wales only. Mental Capacity Act 2005 s.25 governs the collision rule described on this page — verify anything you rely on at GOV.UK or take professional advice.
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