Frequently Asked Questions

Before you get started with your EPA, you should consider the following:

• Who do you wish to appoint as your attorney for property?
• Who do you want to appoint as your attorney for personal care and welfare?
• Do you want to appoint a replacement attorney in case an individual named as attorney isn’t able to continue at some stage?
• Do you wish to add conditions, for example, should the attorney be required to consult with certain people or give them annual accounts or other information?

A medical certificate must be provided by a registered health practitioner like your GP, for example, or a mental health nurse whose scope of practice includes assessing mental capacity. You can even choose to specify the qualified practitioner you want to assess your mental capacity in your EPA.

Your attorney must act in your best interest. They need to consult with you when acting on your behalf, encouraging you to develop and exercise the capacity you have.

Your attorney must consult with others as required by you and keep them up to date regarding any actions taken. It’s important that your attorney keeps accurate records of all decisions made and of any financial transactions undertaken on your behalf.

You can decide how your EPA will operate. You can:

• Appoint an individual to work with your attorney;
• Appoint a substitute attorney;
• Cancel or change it at any time – as long as you have the required mental capacity to do so;
• For a Property EPA you can specify whether it takes effect immediately or sometime in the future; and,
• Decide whether the attorney looks after all or some of your assets, under your Property EPA.