Powers of Attorney

A Power of Attorney is a legal document in which you name a specific person to act on your behalf in the event you become mentally incapacitated.

Mental incapacity means different things in different situations but generally arises when someone cannot understand relevant information or cannot appreciate what may happen as a result of decisions they make—or do not make—about their finances, health or personal care.

In Ontario, there are three types of Powers of Attorney:

1. Continuing Power of Attorney for Property covers your financial affairs and allows the person that you named to act for you even if you become mentally incapacitated.

2. Power of Attorney for Personal Care covers your personal decisions such as health care and housing.

3. Non Continuing Power of Attorney for Property covers your financial affairs but cannot be used if you become mentally incapacitated. This can be used, for example, if you want to give someone the authority to handle your financial affairs if you are away for an extended period of time.

It is important to have a Power of Attorney in order to ensure that YOU determine who will be making substitute decisions on your behalf in the event that you become mentally incapable of doing so yourself. In the unfortunate circumstance that you do not have a Power of Attorney and you become incapacitated, then a family member, (even perhaps one that you would not have chosen) could apply for the right to make health decisions and be a "guardian" of your property. This could have the potential of resulting in inter-family conflict. There is also the alternative that a close friend, for example could apply to act on your behalf. If neither of these possibilities occur, and there is no suitable alternate person who is willing and able to act, then the government, through the office of the Public Guardian and Trustee, would act.