Do this with them, not to them.
Every step below keeps your parent as the author of their own affairs. You are the one who helps them write it down, find it again, and keep it current — not the one who takes it over.
That distinction is the difference between support and control, and your parent will feel it.
Four steps, at your parent's pace
There is no rush and no single right week to start. Each step stands on its own — the first one is free and costs only a conversation.
Start with a conversation, not a takeover
Begin with the free checklist below — the questions that help a parent tell you what already exists, where it lives, and who they would want to act. You are gathering, not deciding.
Capture the essentials in one sitting
Sit down together and capture the answers in a free First Sitting — about ten minutes at the kitchen table.
Claim the starter record — in their name
Open a free account and the answers become a living record your parent owns. They hold it; you help keep it current. The authority stays where it belongs.
Keep it current as things change
An annual review keeps the record true as circumstances move — a diagnosis, a house move, a changed wish. The work done once now is the work no one reconstructs later.
What to ask — without taking over
Five questions for an unhurried conversation. Ask them as someone who wants to help, not audit. You are listening for what exists and what they want — not making changes.
The will, any LPA, the deeds, insurance, pension paperwork. Not to take them — just so someone knows where to look.
Their choice, named in their words. This is the seed of a Lasting Power of Attorney — a decision only they can make, while they can.
GP, solicitor, accountant, the banks. A short list now saves a long search later.
Funeral wishes, who to tell first, a pet's care. Small things that matter enormously, and are easily lost.
The most important question, and the one most often skipped. Supporting someone means knowing the lines they want held.
When you've had this conversation, start a free First Sitting together and the answers become a living record your parent keeps — with nothing to pay. Prefer it composed for you? Caring for a Parent is a £79 document pack — LPA, finances, and care preferences, personally prepared within one business day.
Why act early
Capacity is a one-way door — the routes that are simple today close the moment it's lost.
A Lasting Power of Attorney is made and registered while your parent has capacity — the Office of the Public Guardian fee is £92 per LPA, £184 for both.
If capacity is lost first, the alternative is a Court of Protection deputyship — slower, dearer, supervised, and decided by a court rather than your parent.
Who acts for them is a decision only your parent can make, and only while they still can. Early is the only time it is fully theirs.
Start the free LPA readiness intake · What a lasting power of attorney costs, and how registration works
Reading for the road ahead
Where to go from here
Getting organised as a family
When more than one of you is helping — one shared record, owned by the person it describes.
Go to this pageWhat is a trusted person?
The named contact a parent can choose calmly now — distinct from an executor or an attorney.
Go to this pageIf you've been named yourself
What it means to be someone's trusted person, and what would reach you if you were ever called on.
Go to this pageThe work you do calmly now is the work no one has to do in a crisis later.
Start with the conversation. Capture it once. Keep it true. Your parent stays in charge of their own affairs — and you stop carrying it all in your head.