Deputy Annual Report, Security Bond, and OPG Supervision in England

Becoming a Court of Protection deputy for your parent isn't a one-off event. It's an ongoing legal obligation with annual reporting requirements, financial supervision, and costs that accumulate year after year. Most families focus on getting through the application process and don't fully understand what comes after — until the first OPG letter arrives asking for a detailed financial account.

The Annual Report: What You Must Submit

Every property and financial affairs deputy must submit an annual report to the Office of the Public Guardian. The OPG sends you Form OPG102 (or its online equivalent through the OPG's digital service) roughly a month before your reporting deadline.

The report requires a complete account of every financial transaction you've made on your parent's behalf during the reporting year:

• Income received: State pension, private pensions, benefits (Attendance Allowance, PIP), savings interest, rental income
• Expenditure: Care home fees, household bills, medical costs, personal items, any gifts made on the donor's behalf
• Capital movements: Property sales, investment changes, large transfers
• Opening and closing balances for every account you manage

The OPG cross-references your report against the information they hold. Unexplained discrepancies — a large withdrawal without a corresponding expense, or income that doesn't match pension records — trigger a follow-up investigation.

Keep detailed records throughout the year. Waiting until the reporting deadline to reconstruct 12 months of transactions from bank statements is a common source of errors, and errors trigger OPG scrutiny.

Supervision Fees

The OPG charges annual supervision fees, deducted directly from the protected person's funds:

General supervision: £320 per year. This applies to most property and financial affairs deputies managing estates above the minimal threshold.

Minimal supervision: £35 per year. Available only when the protected person's total assets are valued below £21,000. The reduced fee reflects the lower complexity and risk involved.

Initial assessment fee: £100. A one-off charge when you're first appointed, covering the OPG's setup and initial case review.

These are the standard fees. Help with paying OPG deputy fees may be available through Form OPG120. The fees normally continue every year for as long as the deputyship remains active — which, for many dementia cases, means years or even decades.

The Security Bond

Before the court releases your sealed deputyship order, you must take out a security bond. This is an insurance policy that protects your parent's estate against financial loss caused by the deputy's mismanagement, fraud, or negligence.

The court sets the bond amount with regard to the total value of your parent's estate and the kind of access you have to it. The annual premium scales to roughly 0.075% of the bond value:

• Estate of £100,000: bond premium approximately £75/year
• Estate of £200,000: approximately £150/year
• Estate of £500,000: approximately £375/year

You pay the premium from your parent's funds, not your own. The bond must remain in force for the entire duration of the deputyship. If you let it lapse, the OPG will intervene.

Only approved surety providers can issue deputy security bonds. The court's directions will name the approved providers or direct you to the OPG's list.

What a Lay Deputy Actually Does

A "lay deputy" is a family member or friend appointed to manage the protected person's affairs, as opposed to a professional deputy (a solicitor or accountancy firm). Most family deputyships are lay deputyships.

The role involves:

Day-to-day financial management. Paying care home fees, managing bills, claiming benefits, handling tax. You have the same powers as a Property and Financial Affairs LPA attorney, but with court supervision layered on top.

Acting in best interests. Every decision must pass the Mental Capacity Act's best interests test. This means considering what the protected person would have wanted, not what's most convenient for the family. Selling a property, changing care providers, or making investment decisions all require documented best-interests reasoning.

Keeping records. The annual report requirement means you need a transaction log — date, amount, purpose, supporting receipt or invoice — for everything. The OPG's digital service provides a basic template, but many lay deputies use a simple spreadsheet.

Staying within your authority. Deputies cannot make gifts beyond customary birthday and holiday presents of reasonable value, cannot sell property below market value, and cannot make interest-free loans to family members without explicit Court of Protection approval. Exceeding your authority exposes you to personal liability and potential criminal prosecution.

When the OPG Investigates

The OPG's compliance team reviews cases based on risk flags: inconsistent annual reports, complaints from family members, reports from social workers or care homes, or random audit selection. An investigation might involve:

• Requesting detailed bank statements for all accounts you manage
• Interviewing you about specific transactions
• Visiting the protected person to assess their care and living conditions
• In serious cases, applying to the court to remove you as deputy and appoint a professional replacement

If the OPG finds financial abuse or mismanagement, the consequences can include removal as deputy and action to recover losses, through to criminal prosecution in serious cases.

The Cost That Compounds

A deputyship that runs for ten years — not unusual with dementia — accumulates substantial overhead: £320/year supervision (£3,200 total), plus security bond premiums, plus the annual time cost of record-keeping and reporting, plus any professional accounting help you need to prepare the OPG102 accurately. This is on top of the initial application costs (£432 court fee, £100-£300 capacity assessment, £100 OPG assessment fee).

Every pound of this comes from your parent's estate. It's the fundamental reason the England Lasting Power of Attorney & Deputyship Kit emphasises getting an LPA in place while a parent still has capacity — LPAs carry none of these ongoing costs, no security bond, no mandatory reporting, and no annual supervision fees.

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