Powers of attorney prepared by a Melbourne solicitor.

A power of attorney is a formal legal document that gives another person authority to make decisions for you while you are alive. Unlike a will, which only takes effect on death, these documents cover the years in between, a stroke, an accident, dementia, a long hospital admission, or simply being uncontactable overseas when a settlement has to happen.

In Victoria the powers are split across separate documents. An enduring power of attorney covers financial matters and personal matters such as where you live. A medical treatment decision maker appointment covers consent to treatment. A supportive attorney appointment helps a person who still has capacity but needs assistance gathering information and communicating decisions.

Each has its own signing and witnessing requirements, and each attorney has to formally accept the role before they can act. The rules are precise, and a document executed the wrong way can be worthless at the very moment it is relied on.

You can only make a power of attorney while you still have decision-making capacity. Once capacity is lost, the option disappears and the only path left is a VCAT application, which is why these documents are signed early, not when they are needed.

Victoria splits these decisions across separate documents, and most people need more than one. Getting the right combination is half the value of seeing a solicitor.

An enduring power of attorney is the main document. Made under the Powers of Attorney Act 2014, it lets you appoint someone to make financial decisions (paying bills, banking, dealing with property) and personal decisions (where you live, the care and services you receive). It is "enduring" because it keeps working after you lose capacity, which is the whole point of having one.

A general (non-enduring) power of attorney covers financial matters only and ends the moment you lose capacity. It suits a short-term, practical need, such as someone signing for you while you are overseas. It is not an estate planning document.

A medical treatment decision maker is appointed under the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016. This is the person who consents to or refuses medical treatment for you if you cannot. It replaced the old "enduring power of attorney (medical treatment)", so an appointment made under the previous law should be reviewed.

A supportive attorney is for a different situation again: you still have capacity but want formal help to gather information, communicate your decisions and put them into effect. A supportive attorney supports your decisions rather than making them for you.

Most clients leave our office with an enduring power of attorney and a medical treatment decision maker appointment, often with an advance care directive recording their treatment wishes.

You decide when an enduring power of attorney starts, and the choice matters more than it first appears. It can begin straight away, or wait until you actually lose capacity, and which you choose changes who can act for you, and when. Set it wrong and you either hand over authority too early or leave a gap at exactly the moment it is needed, which is one of the things we talk through before you sign.

For personal and medical decisions the position is fixed by law: those powers can only be used when you are unable to make the decision yourself, and your attorney cannot override you while you still have capacity. Every enduring power of attorney also ends automatically on your death, at which point your will and your executor take over. The two documents are meant to hand off to each other, which is why we usually prepare them together.

An attorney is not free to do as they please. Under the Powers of Attorney Act 2014, an enduring attorney can do almost anything you could lawfully do yourself in relation to your personal and financial matters (section 22), but only within the conditions and limitations you set in the document (section 24), and they must always act honestly, with reasonable care, in your best interests, keep their money and property separate from yours, and keep accurate records.

Section 26 then draws hard lines your attorney cannot cross. They cannot make or revoke your will or another power of attorney, cannot vote for you, cannot make decisions about your children or your relationships, and cannot deal with your estate after you die unless they are also your executor. They cannot hand the role to someone else, and they generally cannot give away your money or benefit themselves beyond what you have clearly authorised. We set these boundaries deliberately when we draft, so the person you trust has enough authority to help and no room to overreach.

Medical decisions sit under a separate law, the Medical Treatment Planning and Decisions Act 2016, and they are handled by two documents that work together.

A medical treatment decision maker is the person who consents to or refuses medical treatment for you if you lose the capacity to decide. You can name more than one in order of priority, and the first who is available and willing acts. The appointment continues to operate through incapacity, and it is the medical equivalent of your enduring power of attorney.

Alongside that appointment, an advance care directive records your wishes in your own words. It can give binding directions about treatment, or set out the values and outcomes that matter to you to guide whoever is deciding. Which form suits you, and how to word it so it is actually followed, is where the care goes in: a directive that is vague or wrongly framed may not do what you hoped when it counts.

Together these documents mean your treatment is guided by your values and given by someone you chose, rather than left to a doctor and a family guessing under pressure. We usually prepare them alongside the enduring power of attorney, so the financial, personal and medical sides are all covered.

If you lose capacity and have no enduring power of attorney, no one, not even your spouse, automatically has legal authority over assets held in your name. Someone who wants to act has to apply to VCAT under the Guardianship and Administration Act 2019 for an order.

VCAT can appoint an administrator to manage your financial affairs and a guardian to make personal and lifestyle decisions. It appoints the person it considers suitable, which may not be your first choice, and where no suitable family member is available it can appoint State Trustees to handle your money or the Office of the Public Advocate to act as guardian. The process involves a hearing, it becomes a matter of record, and it takes time your family may not have. All of it is avoidable. A signed enduring power of attorney keeps the decision in your hands.