Appointing a Decision Maker for Your Financial, Health and Personal Affairs

There are a lot of mysteries, myths and misinformation around Power of Attorney. A power of attorney is a legal document by which you (the Donor) appoint someone (the Donee) to act for you in relation to financial or legal matters in circumstances where you are unable to act for yourself for example if you are overseas or incapacitated in some way.
The Donee does not have to be a lawyer. It can be a friend, family member or someone else but must always be someone you trust implicitly. You have two or more people to be your Donee where they cannot act without the other’s approval.

Who can make a Power of Attorney?
Anyone over 18 can make a power of attorney as long as they understand what they are signing (that is, if they have mental capacity).

What happens if you do not have a Power of Attorney?
It is not compulsory to appoint an attorney, but there are consequences if you do not. It could lead to conflict over who should take charge of the decision-making process if you become unable to do this yourself. Not having a power of attorney is also a problem if family members require immediate access to your bank accounts to pay for any medical treatment you need.

Taking a Role of an Attorney
Taking on the role of attorney is not to be overlooked. Due to the potential impact, this important role carries with its serious legal responsibilities and consequences.

Once an attorney accepts their appointment it can be very hard to just ‘walk away’ in the future. For example, once a principal has lost mental capacity, the only way to be excused from acting as their attorney is to get an order from a Tribunal.

If you would like to discuss or make a power of attorney, simply email us at info@straitslawyers.com or call at 08 8410 9069 to arrange an appointment.

Alternatively, if you would like to prepare a Will, Straits Lawyers are now offering an online package for Advance Care Directives and Wills. Simply purchase our package via this link: https://straits-lawyers.square.site/product/will-and-advance-care-directive-package-/13

Please note that this article does not constitute legal advice.