What is an Enduring Power of Attorney?
An Enduring Power of Attorney (POA) allows you to appoint a person to manage your legal and financial affairs, even if you lose capacity.
What is an Appointment of Enduring Guardian?
An Appointment of Enduring Guardian (AEG) allows you to appoint a person to make lifestyle, health and medical decisions on your behalf, if and when you are not capable of doing so for yourself.
When should you make a POA and AEG?
It is important to prepare a POA and AEG whilst you have capacity.
If you lose capacity and have not prepared either document, an application will need to be made to the Guardianship Division of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have these appointments made.
Who should you appoint as your Attorney and Enduring Guardian?
You should carefully consider who you choose as your Attorney and Enduring Guardian. You can appoint more than one Attorney and Enduring Guardian. If you wish to appoint more than one, you should select people who can cooperate and who you trust to work together in your best interests.
You should also evaluate a person's ability to make decisions in difficult and emotional circumstances, as well as how well the person understands your needs, wishes, values and beliefs and how easy it will be to contact the person when decisions will need to be made.
There is no supervision of your Attorney or Enduring Guardian and they are not required to report on their role in making decisions on your behalf. Sadly, the misappropriation of funds by Attorneys is a growing trend. That is why it is important to carefully consider who to appoint as your Attorney, to protect your financial affairs.
The content of this article is intended to provide a general guide to the subject matter. Specialist advice should be sought about your specific circumstances.