An Enduring Power of Attorney (commonly known as an EPA) is a legal document a person can make that gives another person/s, or organisation, the legal authority to make financial and/or property decisions on their behalf.
It is important to consider making an EPA in case you lose capacity to make independent and informed financial decisions in the future.
An EPA can be made by anyone over the age of 18, who has full legal capacity.
There are different views on what 'full legal capacity' means. It may mean that you can understand:
the nature and extent of what you own
that your attorney will, in general, be able to do anything with your property which you yourself could do
that while you are mentally capable, you may direct your attorney to act in a particular way and may revoke (cancel) the EPA
that if you become mentally incapable, the EPA will continue and can only be revoked in limited circumstances
that your attorney won’t be monitored or audited, so you are placing a very high level of trust in that person or organisation.
An EPA cannot be made by another person on behalf of someone whose capacity might be in doubt due to mental illness, acquired brain injury, cognitive impairment or dementia.
The benefit of an EPA is that, unlike an ordinary power of attorney, it will continue to operate even if the person who made the document (the donor) loses full legal capacity.
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