The Office of the Public Guardian (OPG) is the government office that registers Lasting Powers of Attorney and supervises the people who act for adults who have lost mental capacity. It sits under the Ministry of Social and Family Development and operates under the Mental Capacity Act 2008. If you are making an LPA, your document goes to the OPG. If you are a donee or a deputy, the OPG is the body that can ask you what you have been doing with someone else’s money.
Most people encounter it once, at registration, and never again. The families who deal with it repeatedly are usually the ones where something has gone wrong.
What the OPG actually does
Four functions, in practice:
- Registers LPAs. A certified LPA has no effect until the OPG registers it. It also runs the statutory objection window before registration.
- Maintains the registers. It keeps the record of registered LPAs, appointed donees, and court-appointed deputies, so that a bank or hospital can verify that someone claiming authority actually has it.
- Supervises donees and deputies. It monitors how people appointed under the Act are exercising their powers, with deputies subject to closer routine oversight than donees.
- Investigates concerns. Where there is a complaint that a donee or deputy is acting against the interests of the person they represent, the OPG can look into it.
What it does not do is give advice on your situation. It will explain its forms and processes. It will not tell you whether to appoint your eldest child, or whether Form 1 is right for you.
Dealing with the OPG when you make an LPA
Your only interaction at this stage is registration. You complete the form, have it certified by an accredited certificate issuer (an accredited medical practitioner, a practising lawyer, or a psychiatrist), and submit it. The OPG checks it, runs the objection period, and registers it if all is in order. Our step-by-step LPA application guide covers the sequence in full.
The commonest reasons an application stalls are mundane: mismatched identity details, a donee who has not signed, or a donee who does not meet the requirements for the powers being granted. The OPG will say what needs fixing.
The objection window
Before registration there is a period during which someone can object, typically a family member who believes the donor lacked capacity or was pressured. This is a genuine safeguard, not a formality, and it is one reason a proper certification appointment matters. An issuer who saw the donor alone, asked the right questions and recorded that they did so is what makes a weak objection fail.
On registration fees
The OPG publishes its own fees. The government has at various times waived the registration fee for Singapore citizens making the standard Form 1, and that waiver has been extended more than once, so a great deal of the information circulating online is out of date. Do not assume a waiver is currently running, and do not assume it has lapsed; check the OPG’s current fee information before budgeting. Our breakdown of what an LPA costs explains which parts of the bill any waiver has ever covered.
Dealing with the OPG as a donee
Once your LPA is active, meaning the donor has lost mental capacity, you are exercising legal powers over another person’s life or money, and the Mental Capacity Act sets out how. You must act in the donor’s best interests, take the least restrictive option available, and keep the donor’s assets entirely separate from your own.
Donees are not routinely required to file accounts with the OPG. That is not the same as being unaccountable. You should keep records as though you will one day have to produce them, because you might: if a sibling raises a concern, the OPG can ask you to account for what you have done. Bank statements, receipts for large expenditure, and a note of the reasoning behind significant decisions are what protect you.
Dealing with the OPG as a deputy
Deputies are supervised more closely. A deputy is appointed by the court because capacity was already lost when the family came forward, and the court defines what the deputy may do. Reporting obligations flow from the order and from what the OPG requires: typically periodic accounts of how the person’s property and affairs have been handled.
That difference in oversight is one of the practical arguments for making an LPA early. Our page on how deputyship works in Singapore covers the application itself.
| Donee under an LPA | Court-appointed deputy | |
|---|---|---|
| Chosen by | The donor, in advance | The court, after capacity is lost |
| Powers defined by | The LPA form | The court order |
| Routine reporting | Not routinely required | Generally required |
| OPG supervision | On complaint or concern | Ongoing |
When you need to raise a concern
If you believe a donee or deputy is mishandling someone’s affairs (money moving to their own account, a property being sold without explanation, a parent isolated from other family), the OPG is where that goes. Bring specifics: dates, amounts, documents, and what you observed rather than what you suspect. Vague family grievances go nowhere; a bank statement does not.
Where you think a criminal offence has occurred, contact the police as well. And where the person is at risk of harm rather than financial loss, that is a safeguarding matter and should be treated with the same urgency you would give any other. In an emergency, call 999.
What the OPG can and cannot do about it
It can investigate, ask for accounts, and refer matters onward. It cannot simply strike a donee off by administrative decision; revoking an LPA or removing a donee is a matter for the court, which may act on what the OPG has found. That distinction matters if you are expecting a quick fix: the OPG is the entry point, not the whole remedy.
Where the OPG fits alongside the courts
People conflate the two. The Family Justice Courts make orders: appointing deputies, revoking LPAs, resolving disputes about a person’s best interests. The OPG registers, records and supervises. You go to the OPG to lodge and to complain; you end up in court when something has to be decided or undone.
For families already in the family law system this is a separate track from divorce proceedings, even where the same relatives are involved. The overlap that catches people out is that an LPA is not automatically revoked by divorce: a former spouse named as donee remains appointed until the donor revokes it. Anyone going through a divorce should check what their registered LPA says.
Before you contact them
Work out which of three things you want: to register something, to ask how a process works, or to report a concern. Those go to different places and take different amounts of time. Have the donor’s details, the LPA or deputyship reference, and your own relationship to the person ready.
And know the limits. The OPG will not tell you whether to appoint your brother or your daughter, will not mediate a family argument, and will not draft anything for you. It administers a statutory scheme. Understanding how the LPA scheme works before you call will save you a conversation.
