Who can be an attorney?
Your attorney must be aged over 16 and be willing to take on the role of attorney. There is no limit to the number of attorneys that you can appoint. It is possible to appoint a sole attorney or joint attorneys and substitute attorneys. You can appoint either individuals or an organisation, such as a firm of solicitors, as your continuing (financial) attorney. However, individuals only may be appointed as welfare attorneys. The law says that someone who is currently declared as bankrupt cannot be a continuing attorney.
We cannot assist you to draft your power of attorney (PoA) nor do we provide template PoAs as we provide a registration service only.
A PoA is an important and powerful document and you may wish to take legal advice when thinking about making one. You need to give careful consideration who to appoint as your attorney. This should be someone you are confident will act responsibly and who has the necessary skills to carry out the tasks and make decisions on your behalf. It’s good practice to write down your thoughts or have a conversation with your attorneys to help them understand what is important to you, such as your:
- Preferred place of residence and how that should be arranged
- Food - likes and dislikes
- Entertainment - likes and dislikes
- Friends and others you’d like to keep in touch with
- Birthdays of others you’d like support to remember
- Spiritual or religious beliefs and practices
- Lifestyle choices such as preference to be busy, or to sleep late at weekends
- Activities – eg. walking, reading, watching television, music
- Fluctuating capacity (or not), and how people can recognise when they should start helping you, and when to leave the decision making to you
Confirmation that attorneys are willing to act
- If you intend to submit your PoA to us by post you can use our registration form to tell us more about your attorneys. They should sign this form to confirm they are willing to act as your attorney. The form should be sent to us along with your completed PoA document.
- Or if you intend to submit your PoA to us electronically using our EPOAR facility you will be asked to confirm by ticking a box that the PoA complies with the statutory requirements including satisfying us that the attorney is freely willing to act in their role. There is no need to submit the above registration form when using EPOAR.