GENERAL POWER OF ATTORNEY, ENDURING POWER OF ATTORNEY AND ENDURING GUARDIAN
General Power of Attorney is a legal document that allows you to appoint a person (also called a trustee) to act on your behalf to deal with your money, real estate, and all other financial matters. In NSW, a Power of Attorney can only apply to financial and legal matters. You may for instance be travelling overseas and want to give your attorney access to your bank accounts to pay your bills, or collect and deposit income. If you would like give Power of Attorney to someone to deal with real estate property (buy or sell), it has to be registered with Land Registry Services. General Power of Attorney ceases to have effect if a person loses mental capacity.
Enduring Power of Attorney continues to be in force after you have lost capacity to self manage. This distinction is particularly important for older people as it will be too late to appoint someone if you suddenly had an accident and goes into coma, diagnosed with dementia or other mental frailty.
An Enduring Guardian is a person who you appoint to manage and deal with your personal or health issues when you no longer can make your own decisions. Enduring Guardian makes decision on where you live, what services are provided to you at home and what medical treatment you receive. It will only comes into effect if or when you lose capacity and will only be effective during the period of incapacity, therefore, it may never become operational.