​If you are not able to make decisions about your health care, medical treatments and assisted accommodation because of accident, serious disease or mental deterioration caused by dementia and similar problems,an appointment of enduring guardian can make sure your wishes about your medical treatment and where you will live are carried out by your family or trusted friends in the way you expect them to be carried out.

  • You contact us and we either visit you for a face-to-face appointment or, more usually, conduct a telephone consultation.

  • We provide you with an Advance Care Directive for free which you have the option of completing (with or without the assistance of your doctor) and incorporating into your Appointment of Enduring Guardian.

  • You provide us with evidence of your identity and the names and contact details of the persons you want to appoint to make your decisions for you.

  • We draft your documents within 1 week and send them to you by email or mail to review.

  • We make any minor amendments you request to the draft.

  • We attend at your house, other agreed place or video conference to sign off your documents. These documents must be witnessed by a person qualified to practice law in Australia or overseas.

Benefits

  • Comprehensive legal advice tailored to your particular circumstances and wishes.

  • Easy - you don’t need to leave the comfort of your house.

  • Saves your family the hassle and stress of having to get Tribunal Orders at a difficult time if you can no longer manage your affairs and someone needs to take over your finances and other affairs.

  • Gives your family direction and guidance about what they need to do for you.

  • Gives you peace of mind that your affairs will be dealt with properly and by people you trust.

  • An Appointment of Enduring Guardian is an important document to make sure your care needs are properly addressed if you can not speak for yourself.

  • These are important documents for everyone to have, but particularly if travelling a lot, involved in dangerous work or sports, have received a diagnosis for disease that may affect your mental function in time, or are retired.

Fees and Costs

Simple Appointment of Enduring Guardian
$220 *


*Fixed rate

Appoints someone to generally deal with any financial and/or legal issue that affects you if you can not manage these matters anymore, including your property, your investments, appointments of death beneficiaries in your Superannuation Fund, and payment of your bills. 

Suitable for anyone who wants to maintain control and dignity over their personal and medical matters should they not be able to speak for themselves in future.

Example: To appoint your partner or children to decide whether you should undergo an operation or to appoint them to assist you in moving to or living in Aged Care and making day-to-day decisions about that care.

Additional fees:

  • An urgency fee of a further $200.00 applies where the turnaround time for the document is less than 48 hours. 

  • Travel charges of $3.00 per km may apply.

  • Postage costs may need to be incurred and will be passed to the client at cost.

  • Additional copies are charged at $5.00 per copy. You will be given one free copy of your will.

  • Safekeeping of your original power of attorney – free

  • Notice of renunciation - $50.00 per notice including registered postage within Australia. You will need to serve this notice on all appointees under a previous enduring power of attorney.

Additional fees may also be charged where a client is:

  • diagnosed with an illness affecting mental capacity, 

  • is of advanced age, 

  • the solicitor has doubts about the client’s mental capacity because the client is unable to express that they understand what the solicitor is trying to do

  • in a nursing home or hospital and therefore definitely requires a capacity assessment to be undertaken by the solicitor

In these instances, a deposit of $400.00 is required and there is no guarantee the solicitor will be able to draft the document. 


FAQs

Who should have these documents?

​Every adult should have an enduring power of attorney and appointment of enduring guardian. These documents enable people you trust to look after your interests when you can't.

Example: You are suddenly injured and remain unconscious for a few weeks. Your trusted person could use the documents to make decisions about your medical care, obtain information about your condition from your doctors, and pay your bills from money in your bank account until you regain consciousness and can take over managing your own interests again.

​These documents tend to become more important as a person gets older. Many older people rely on others for physical assistance with paying your bills, sorting out their legal matters such as the sale of your house and dealing with Centrelink or their superannuation fund. Helpers will find it much easier to assist their older relative or friend if they are given explicit power  through an Enduring Power of Attorney  and Appointment of Enduring Guardian to assist the document-maker with these day-to-day tasks


Can I use a NSW Appointment of Enduring Guardian in another State or Territory? What about in another country?

A NSW Appointment of Enduring Guardian is recognised by most States and Territories in Australia, however there may be additional registration requirements to make the document enforceable in another State.

Whether the document may operate in another country is a matter that must be assessed from case to case.

Can I instruct a lawyer to draft an Appointment of Enduring Guardian for my parent?

No, the parent must themselves must give the instruction. If the parent is not able to do this, for example, because they have dementia, then you must seek orders from the Guardianship Division of the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. This is because the documents give authority to another person to perform particularly important tasks. The document maker themselves must decide who that important person will be that will act for them and what that person is allowed and not allowed to do with the document-maker's money, other assets and personal information.

​For this reason, it is important that the documents are drawn up while a document-maker is still capable of understanding that they are handing over authority to another person to handle their affairs. If a person no longer quite understands what the documents mean for them in a practical sense, it is not possible for these documents to be drawn up. This is because a person who can't understand can't give full and voluntary consent to the document.

Example: Sue is diagnosed with early stage dementia. She does not however have an enduring power of attorney or appointment of enduring guardian document. Sue wrongly believes that it is too late for her to do anything about this because she has been diagnosed with dementia, but in fact she is still able to make decisions and if she had asked, a lawyer would have told her she was capable of drafting the documents.

Sue's daughter Jane contacts a solicitor a few years later when Sue's dementia has progressed to a point where Sue can no longer be left to live alone. Jane would like to be appointed as Sue's guardian and attorney. The solicitor advises that it is unfortunately too late to draft the documents. Jane will need to be appointed as Jane's guardian by the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal. She will need to make an application to be appointed in these capacities and provide all the information the trustee needs to make its decision.

It would have been a lot simpler for Jane if Sue had drafted the documents when she was first diagnosed with dementia. Her solicitor could have assessed her ability to give instructions, and take other precautions, but Sue could probably have had the documents drafted nonetheless.

When does an Appointment of Enduring Guardian begin to operate?

​Some people, particularly elderly persons who are already receiving assistance with their day-to -day matters from a child or another person, prefer to have the documents operate immediately. Most people, however, will not want the documents to operate until such time they feel they can no longer manage on their own. In that case, the documents are drafted so that they only operate once a certain event occurs.

​Example: Larry states in his appointment of enduring guardian that his children will not be able to make medical decisions for him until such time he enters Aged Care permanently. In that event, Larry's children will only be able to make decisions about Larry’s medical care when Larry actually enters Aged Care permanently.

Can I cancel my Appointment of Enduring Guardian? If yes, how can I cancel it?

Appointments of Enduring Guardian can be revoked (cancelled) at any time by the document maker, provided that person has the ability to understand the consequences of what they are doing by revoking the documents.

​The revocation must be in writing and must be served on all previously nominated Guardians.  This requirement is a protection for a document-maker. It means if the document maker changes their minds about who they have appointed as their guardian, they can quickly cancel the documents without their capacity to do this being called into question.

Advance Care Directives

​Advance Care Directives are documents that:

  • Have no formal requirements (unlike Wills, Powers of Attorney and Appointments of Enduring Guardian) or standard format.

  • Set out directions about your care and accommodation requirements when you can no longer care for yourself and are not able to communicate how you would like to be treated.

  • Your Advance Care Directive can also be incorporated into your Enduring Guardianship Nomination and so doing you give your guardian comprehensive directions as to what is acceptable to you or is not acceptable to you as far as quality of life is concerned and steps that you will allow your Guardian to take in particular circumstances – such as authorising your guardian to refuse you medical treatment in particular circumstances.


Children who are mature enough to understand the implications of their decisions and are facing severe illness may also have an Advance Care Directive.